Making sure employees are the engine room of profit
Making sure employees are the engine room of profit
Across all areas, the impact of global markets and intense competition is being felt, the heat is on at the top as customers and shareholders become more demanding. Increasingly, it is to their people as well as technology that they turn for answers.
In a nutshell, leaders are under the gun for results. Everyone around them is demanding “better, faster and cheaper”. And as leaders turn to their employees, they find that loyalty has been replaced by a free market where employees perform conditionally (am I acknowledged, what do I know, will I be rewarded, is it worth it) rather than as a matter of course.
Every day these employees make the choice to either engage of not engage their talents in serving customers and the organisation. Yet many organizations still regard employees as interchangeable units of cost.
The challenge is to inform and motivate, and many in management are not up to it.
The jury is not out on the question of the power of engagement of employees. The data shows engagement creates more sales, more market value, higher return on capital. On the other side, it shows reduced absenteeism, fewer accidents, greater customer loyalty and retention. These are all direct drivers of profit and success.
But the Gallup Organisation over at least two decades has found that as many as 69% of employees are “not engaged”, that only 16% are engaged. This engaged group drive organizational success. The vast majority is not engaged; they drag performance down.
The good news is that most people see their workplace as full of potential; they want to learn and make a worthwhile contribution. They also want recognition for that contribution. Most importantly, people want face-to-face communication so they can better understand their place in the organisation.
Who is going to provide the drive for more and more employees to switch to engaged? How do you motivate people to make the right decisions for customers and the organisation, and how do you unlock the discretionary effort that the “not engaged” might withhold?
We have real trouble with this in the west, where some seek charismatic leaders at the top while others pursue teamwork or “let’s restructure” as a way to switch people on.
Yet we know from research in a variety of companies exactly what are the communication needs of employees; things like timely and accurate information, coaching and feedback, real communication, a feeling of being valued, understanding of the business and real human contact.
And if you think about how employees move to greater loyalty and engagement, it is typically a shift from the personal (“I”) to a sense of team and organisation (“We”).
Leaders at all levels are obviously the critical link, rather than just the one at the top. “Leaders” includes managers, supervisors and team leaders. In the day-to-day of the workplace, they are the ones who win or lose discretionary effort and engagement.
Unfortunately, most of these leaders, despite their best efforts, have never been trained in communication and have little understanding of it.
We all pay lip service to how “vital” communication is; but really more often than not among business leaders communication is poorly understood and badly executed.
On the employee side, a major problem is the sheer volume of information they receive, meaning that they often do not know what to do with it and what it all means. This is the result of communicating without a strategy. Strategic communication is the reverse of this chaotic approach: it brings focus and understanding.
Research has shown that what employees are really looking for is “communication” that helps them do their jobs well. They also mostly say that they prefer to get this kind of information from their managers, supervisors and team leaders. So the challenge is how to unlock the power of this opportunity.
There are six imperatives for those who seek to use communication as part of real leadership.
Make the time
To say you don’t have time to communicate is to say you don’t have time to lead. This communication is more than a few memos, emails and meetings. It is vastly more than “my door is always open”. A good leader needs a strategy to shape their communication, and then the ability to see it through. Time, persistence and repetition are essential ingredients of good communication.
Relate it to them
Naturally employees want to know how information and news relates to them, yet mostly they get swags of information and no help in differentiating it. Information overload and communication failure are team mates. A discussion of developments within your company or organization should include what these developments mean to your team and to their customers. Your people want to know the “why” of things that happen, because with the “why” they can become engaged.
Don’t wait to communicate
A massive business leadership problem is secrecy. We are not comfortable as leaders if we do not have all the answers, so we wait until it is too late. The result is always rumour, gossip and declining engagement. For many, the first step to good leadership is a public acknowledgement that you don’t know everything. Being comfortable with not having all the answers provides real integrity to your messages. So tell them what you know, tell them what you don’t know and tell them when you should know more.
Be open and honest
People have great inbuilt lie detectors. Nothing switches people off quicker than a lie, but this also extends to gossip and “talking big”, a failing of those managers who desperately want to impress and think that “if I am a leader I should know everything and be in everything”. Much better instead to communicate in a real, open and human way.
What you “say” should match what you “do”
Words without matching action are worse than no words at all. You cannot be a leader if you cannot lead by example. Actions speak louder than words. For example, if you promise to do something by a set time, always deliver. At the least, if you cannot deliver explain what has changed and therefore means you cannot deliver as expected – it is worth going out of your way to get this understood. Failure to live up to your promises is a signal to others that they don’t need to either.
Employees are not dummies
Listen to employees. Make it a real two-way communication. In most organizations, there are ordinary employees who have already identified the problem and know how to solve it; if you would just ask them. Encourage them to be forthright, even where there may be disagreement; communication has the goal of understanding.
Organisations spend a fortune on measuring customer satisfaction and trying to find out what they want and need, yet few have a clear idea of the communication needs of their employees. We know the stages that an employee goes through from the initial “What’s my job?” to the fully engaged and switched on employee who asks “How can I help?”
With planning and the right strategy, our managers, supervisors and team leaders can communicate so successfully that more and more employees move over into the engaged category – then we’ll have a real competitive advantage.
Making sure employees are the engine room of profit - To learn more about this author, visit Stephen Manallack's Website.
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Have we finally reached the point in the information revolution where there is greater acceptance that people make the difference, that human capital is the big differentiator?
Across all areas, the impact of global markets and intense competition is being felt, the heat is on at the top as customers and shareholders become more demanding. Increasingly, it is to their people as well as technology that they turn for answers.
In a nutshell, leaders are under the gun for results. Everyone around them is demanding “better, faster and cheaper”. And as leaders turn to their employees, they find that loyalty has been replaced by a free market where employees perform conditionally (am I acknowledged, what do I know, will I be rewarded, is it worth it) rather than as a matter of course.
Every day these employees make the choice to either engage of not engage their talents in serving customers and the organisation. Yet many organizations still regard employees as interchangeable units of cost.
The challenge is to inform and motivate, and many in management are not up to it.
The jury is not out on the question of the power of engagement of employees. The data shows engagement creates more sales, more market value, higher return on capital. On the other side, it shows reduced absenteeism, fewer accidents, greater customer loyalty and retention. These are all direct drivers of profit and success.
But the Gallup Organisation over at least two decades has found that as many as 69% of employees are “not engaged”, that only 16% are engaged. This engaged group drive organizational success. The vast majority is not engaged; they drag performance down.
The good news is that most people see their workplace as full of potential; they want to learn and make a worthwhile contribution. They also want recognition for that contribution. Most importantly, people want face-to-face communication so they can better understand their place in the organisation.
Who is going to provide the drive for more and more employees to switch to engaged? How do you motivate people to make the right decisions for customers and the organisation, and how do you unlock the discretionary effort that the “not engaged” might withhold?
We have real trouble with this in the west, where some seek charismatic leaders at the top while others pursue teamwork or “let’s restructure” as a way to switch people on.
Yet we know from research in a variety of companies exactly what are the communication needs of employees; things like timely and accurate information, coaching and feedback, real communication, a feeling of being valued, understanding of the business and real human contact.
And if you think about how employees move to greater loyalty and engagement, it is typically a shift from the personal (“I”) to a sense of team and organisation (“We”).
Leaders at all levels are obviously the critical link, rather than just the one at the top. “Leaders” includes managers, supervisors and team leaders. In the day-to-day of the workplace, they are the ones who win or lose discretionary effort and engagement.
Unfortunately, most of these leaders, despite their best efforts, have never been trained in communication and have little understanding of it.
We all pay lip service to how “vital” communication is; but really more often than not among business leaders communication is poorly understood and badly executed.
On the employee side, a major problem is the sheer volume of information they receive, meaning that they often do not know what to do with it and what it all means. This is the result of communicating without a strategy. Strategic communication is the reverse of this chaotic approach: it brings focus and understanding.
Research has shown that what employees are really looking for is “communication” that helps them do their jobs well. They also mostly say that they prefer to get this kind of information from their managers, supervisors and team leaders. So the challenge is how to unlock the power of this opportunity.
There are six imperatives for those who seek to use communication as part of real leadership.
Make the time
To say you don’t have time to communicate is to say you don’t have time to lead. This communication is more than a few memos, emails and meetings. It is vastly more than “my door is always open”. A good leader needs a strategy to shape their communication, and then the ability to see it through. Time, persistence and repetition are essential ingredients of good communication.
Relate it to them
Naturally employees want to know how information and news relates to them, yet mostly they get swags of information and no help in differentiating it. Information overload and communication failure are team mates. A discussion of developments within your company or organization should include what these developments mean to your team and to their customers. Your people want to know the “why” of things that happen, because with the “why” they can become engaged.
Don’t wait to communicate
A massive business leadership problem is secrecy. We are not comfortable as leaders if we do not have all the answers, so we wait until it is too late. The result is always rumour, gossip and declining engagement. For many, the first step to good leadership is a public acknowledgement that you don’t know everything. Being comfortable with not having all the answers provides real integrity to your messages. So tell them what you know, tell them what you don’t know and tell them when you should know more.
Be open and honest
People have great inbuilt lie detectors. Nothing switches people off quicker than a lie, but this also extends to gossip and “talking big”, a failing of those managers who desperately want to impress and think that “if I am a leader I should know everything and be in everything”. Much better instead to communicate in a real, open and human way.
What you “say” should match what you “do”
Words without matching action are worse than no words at all. You cannot be a leader if you cannot lead by example. Actions speak louder than words. For example, if you promise to do something by a set time, always deliver. At the least, if you cannot deliver explain what has changed and therefore means you cannot deliver as expected – it is worth going out of your way to get this understood. Failure to live up to your promises is a signal to others that they don’t need to either.
Employees are not dummies
Listen to employees. Make it a real two-way communication. In most organizations, there are ordinary employees who have already identified the problem and know how to solve it; if you would just ask them. Encourage them to be forthright, even where there may be disagreement; communication has the goal of understanding.
Organisations spend a fortune on measuring customer satisfaction and trying to find out what they want and need, yet few have a clear idea of the communication needs of their employees. We know the stages that an employee goes through from the initial “What’s my job?” to the fully engaged and switched on employee who asks “How can I help?”
With planning and the right strategy, our managers, supervisors and team leaders can communicate so successfully that more and more employees move over into the engaged category – then we’ll have a real competitive advantage.
Making sure employees are the engine room of profit - To learn more about this author, visit Stephen Manallack's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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