Employee Engagement – Are you switching them off or on?

Meet Fred the Foreman. It’s 1980 and Fred’s out of control moustache and curly perm are slowly taking over his whole face. He stands in his brown camel coat with clip board in hand watching as the staff slowly clock in for another riveting day at the jam factory. He watches them as they unenthusiastically put lid after lid on pots of sticky jam. Fred shouts at them if they go too slow or if they are doing it wrong. He never pats them on the back for doing well. The day ends and he watches as they rip off their hair nets and run to the door to clock off again.  Fred comments to his peers that this is the quickest they’ve moved all day.

Fast forward 40+ years and some managers are sadly still managing in this way. The perms have probably made way for a fancy flick, the moustaches may have turned into carefully preened beards and the brown coats have been replaced with business suits, but management styles in some cases haven’t moved on at all. I meet managers all time who micro-manage and display zero trust in their people.  What they fail to realise of course is that there is an undercurrent of disengagement bubbling away.

These types of managers will no doubt sit in their management meetings chatting about why their teams aren’t performing, why they are disengaged, why no one looks interested. They don’t realise that they are the reason why people feel the way they do.

If I met a manager like Fred in his Monday morning meeting, I’d love to ask him:

• Do you empower your team? In what ways? Do you hand over responsibility and accountability for projects and targets?
• Do you provide regular and timely feedback to help reinforce desired behaviours and improved performance?
• Do you recognise great team performance and encourage the sharing of best practice?
• Do you instil a healthy, positive and transparent culture? A culture where employees feel happy to work in?
• Do you trust your employees? Do they trust you?

Chances are, Fred would answer no to all the questions above

What about you?  How would you answer those questions?  Hopefully this has given you some food for thought.

Other Resources 

We’d highly recommend Drive, by Dan Pink.  Packed full of tips and advice all supported by evidence, with the aim of helping you to engage your employees and motivate them at work.