The more employee engagement in your people, the better your workplace. And the better your workplace, the better your business. So go out there and “engage” everyone you can.
You work hard. You care about your company, your products, and services. You care about your coworkers and your customers. And you’re constantly trying to do your very best. But you wonder why everybody else in your organisation doesn’t feel the same way?
The reason is simple. They’ve lost their PASSION. They’re no longer excited about their careers and their jobs … if indeed, they ever were. And without that passion, those coworkers will never give you and your customers the results you’d like to see. You’ll get sporadic, mediocre performance instead of consistent, soaring excellence.
Of course, in today’s world, the word “passion” might sound a bit soft or outdated. But it’s not. It’s simply another way of saying that too many workers are “disengaged”. As author Terri Kabachnick says in her book, “I Quit, But Forgot to Tell You”, disengagement is a common, fast-spreading, and dangerous disease that must be dealt with. I couldn’t agree more.
- The cost of disengagement
If you’re a business owner, leader, or manager, disengagement may be killing your business. A recent Gallup poll said disengagement costs businesses more than $250 billion a year! And in many cases, that $250 billion loss is the difference between your profitability and your bankruptcy.Plainly put, you cannot afford to keep a disengaged workforce or even a disengaged employee on the payroll.
The human costs of disengagement may be even greater than the financial costs. After all, if your staff are just putting in their time, waiting for the day to end, and getting little or no satisfaction out of their job, their whole life is going to suffer. Their outlook on life will begin to sour; self-esteem will go down the tubes; health will be challenged, and relationships will suffer. No one can feel good about themselves when they do just enough to get by, and no one likes to work or live with someone who is a slacker.
That being the case, you need to know how to spot the lack of employee engagement in those around you.
- The look of disengagementWhen you’re disengaged, you stop caring about what you do. You stop caring about your work, your job, your team, your boss, and your customers. You do what you know you have to do, but you’ve lost the love of doing it. You’ve lost heart. It’s what I call “Stage One” of the disengagement disease. It’s a somewhat passive stage.
Stage 2 of the disengagement disease is more active and possibly more dangerous. You become negative and discontent, and you don’t mind letting other people know about it. If the disease is not stopped and cured at this stage, the negativity begins to spread like a virus throughout the workplace, even infecting some of the good, engaged employees.
Obviously, you can’t allow that to happen. More importantly, you’ve got to prevent it from happening in the first place.
- Spend more time “engaging” your people in conversationDon’t fool yourself into thinking you’re too busy for this. As author Michael Kardo says, “There is nothing small about small talk”. When you carry on an interesting and meaningful discussion with someone, you’re validating that person. And there isn’t a person in the world that doesn’t want more validation.
Unfortunately, some of the most disengaged departments are led by some of the most disengaged leaders. They’re unskilled or unwilling to engage in non work-related discussions. No problem. You can learn the art of “engaging” conversation.
Follow communication expert Marjorie Brody’s advice. Stay informed about current events and professional happenings. Read newspapers and magazines. Learn about the person with whom you plan to speak, especially those things you may have in common.
Learn what topics are safe and what topics to avoid. For example, the weather and the traffic are tried and true topics for starting conversations. Whether you’ve known someone for two minutes or 20 years, chances are one of the first things you’ll talk about is the weather or traffic. They may not be creative topics, but they break the ice and usually lead to more interesting discussions.
Generally speaking, you can then move on to other “safe” topics, such as current events, travel, hobbies, sports, cultural events, movies, children, food, restaurants, and possibly work. Avoid such topics as politics, religion, gossip, off-color jokes, your health, your personal misfortunes, and bad mouthing the competition or anyone else.
To make your conversation even more engaging, use Brody’s 3-part communication system: observe, reveal, and question. With the “observe” method, you can make a positive comment about an event the two of you are attending, the venue, the cause, the food, or the view. For example, “This is a wonderful event. It looks like everyone is having a good time”. You can “reveal” a positive opinion you might have, such as, “That’s a unique tie. I really like it”. And you can get the other person involved with a “question,” such as “What brought you to this meeting?”.
They’re simple techniques, but they work. They start to engage other people.
- Keep on teaching your peopleIt will make them feel better about themselves, and it will make them more valuable to your organisation. According to the research, almost everyone craves some reward and recognition. And one of the best, most desired reward, is EXCELLENT training that not only educates but motivates the attendees.
You see, if you invest in HIGH QUALITY training, you’re telling your people they’re worth the investment you are making. You are affirming their worth. And that always increases their engagement at work.
Of course, I know there are some skeptics out there who will ask me, “What if I invest all this money in training my people and they leave?”. I answer them by asking, “What if you don’t train your people and they stay?”.
And then, with their newly gained information and skills, if you want to elicit even more engagement…
- Give them a chance to make a differenceYou simply cannot have an engaged workforce or an engaged employee if they don’t think their work makes any difference. Indeed, if that’s what they think, you’ll soon notice that they do just enough work to get by.
You’ve got to give them a chance to make a difference somehow, somewhere. It’s one of the basic laws of motivation.
When you give people a chance to make a difference they keep on giving their best. So ask yourself, “What are you doing today that helps other people make a meaningful and noticeable difference?”.
CEO People Management 