Love Makes the World Go ‘Round: Successful Employee Engagement

There is only one way to attain engaged employees: make them feel important.

That should be easy because they are important! After all, if an employee is not important, it means they are not contributing to the success of the company and then, by definition, they should not be an employee. It therefore makes sense that we demonstrate this to them, per the fundamental psychological need for recognition. Yet, somehow, this relatively easy act often gets lost or pushed down on our “to do” list.

So how do we make it happen?

Let’s start by differentiating between engaged and retained. The former does not guarantee the latter; the former is about productivity and the latter about longevity. While engagement is a factor in retention, there are various other components which influence likelihood of retention including work atmosphere, location/commute, compensation and stability. Engagement is primarily measured through productivity and the quality of that productivity. Do you know what your employees are doing with their time? Do you know what they should be doing? If you asked them to talk with you about their days and where their time goes, would they respond with panic or pride? (Let’s keep in mind that the former may come from a desperate need for help).

As managers, we must be equipped with the right questions and communication skills to accurately assess the situation. As managers, we need to be involved in their lives, care and have a genuine interest in their (work) lives. (I’ve found that acknowledging birthdays and saying ‘good morning’ are fantastically appreciated by all). As managers, we should understand that the art of acknowledgement is that it varies per person and personality, as it does (or should) per child.

In this vein, a manager is comparable to a parent and I believe the bulk of the responsibility for garnering engaged employees lies with him or her. Their job is to instill values, to guide and to provide feedback throughout. One tool utilized to achieve this is performance reviews. A Wall Street Journal article headlined “Get Rid of the Performance Reviews” claims they “destroy morale, kill teamwork, and hurt the bottom line.” Samuel A. Culbert, whose credentials include being a professor of management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, comments on the faulty promise of the traditional performance review which is intended to produce an objective evaluation to help determine compensation and let employees know where they can do better. However, since compensation is more determined by economic conditions than any other factor, keeping the two together ultimately makes it difficult to achieve the objectivity which should exist during the review process. Culbert’s article emphasizes the need for this meeting to be an exchange of perspectives and an alignment of expectations in order to help the line manager and the employee work together more effectively.

I am an avid believer in and practitioner of this approach in a more expansive manner. Adopting this mode of interaction as the norm and constantly re-aligning expectations ensures we fulfill some of our responsibilities vis-à-vis our employees like enabling their progress. Both components are vital to the success of all relationships and inculcate frequent opportunity for expressing appreciation. ..and feedback.

So while it can’t all be love, it can all be loving.

Mistakes are made and growth can (should) result therefrom. In 1967, Herbert Otto published “A Guide to Developing Your Potential.” In it he notes that “only by risking ourselves throughout the range of our interpersonal encounters and by taking this calculated risk…can we grow significantly and increasingly realize our potential.” While I wish it wasn’t so, mistakes are inherent to growth because growth means doing something other than the usual which, in turn, means risk. It’s like stock market principles- we invest (read: risk) in the hopes of profiting (read: growth).

Unfortunately, it seems these positive behavioral fundamentals of cultivating interpersonal relations are countered by almost everything around us. TV shows thrive on conflict and characters who do not smile. Ever. The ‘news’ is not really the ‘news’ but the bad news. The bullying that goes on in schools, society and our surroundings has found its way to the workplace. A wave of articles about the pre-dominant trend of companies to hire only those currently employed has me doubtful their in-house policy can be nurturing. After all, if you know you can ‘steal’ this person, then odds are they can be ‘stolen’ again so why invest (read: take the risk)?

Nevertheless, I encourage you to do so keeping in mind that, as is the case with parenting, we can only do so much. One of my favorite business writers, Jeffrey Fox, has a chapter entitled “Don’t Expect The Personnel Department to Plan Your Career.” And none of us should! Culbert concurs and concludes his article by reminding us that “Improvement is each individual’s own responsibility.” Only we can make ourselves better.

It’s also true that not everyone can be made or kept happy but I believe employees will be as engaged as we encourage them to be. Ultimately, all relationships are give and take, and sometimes, all it takes is a smile and a little love to make the world go ‘round.

Caveat Emptor: The Big Bad World of Job Hunting

Dedicated to A who celebrates her birthday today.

I don’t like networking. Yes, I know it’s sacrilege but it’s true. Conceptually, it’s brilliant- we go to a party and get to meet lots of new and exciting people, some of whom will enrich our lives. Networking is much the same (minus the alcohol and music, well, usually). It’s all about exposure and it’s what we do when expanding our social circles; we seek out interaction with individuals with whom we have something in common, as the likelihood of compatibility increases with similarity of interests/background.

Yet, searching for suitable suitors, for work or for play, isn’t easy. How many of us have a genuine interest in the people around us? How many of us have a genuine interest in helping those people? Were we to heed Dale Carnegie, I believe unemployment would already have dropped considerably, or at the least we could hold everyone’s attention during introductions, and there might even be world peace. But I digress.

More to the point, a true story. A good friend of mine, a smart, savvy individual we’ll call Ariella, mentioned to me several times that she thought a friend of hers, ‘Max,’ had a lot in common with me. So she set us up, so to speak, by sending a virtual introduction. When she did, I responded promptly, as is, I believe customary and especially important to do when one is introduced through a close friend. Max’s response lagged and she subsequently admitted that she had forestalled in meeting me because I had responded so quickly. I guess she subscribes to the asinine “I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member” philosophy. I don’t like dogs (yes, another sacrilege!) but I give them credit for their authentic and enthusiastic response to others of their own kind. Ironic, isn’t it, that in this time when response time can be lightning quick, it’s all too often decried as overeager, and backfires. So, buyer beware! The intricacies of appropriate response time may be elusive, as elusive as learning how to be interviewed has been for me.

An interview, like networking and dating, is supposed to assess mutual compatibility. Interviewers claim to want to please us too but is it true? Like everything else in life, it all depends on the human being with whom we’re interacting. I’ve been blessed to encounter several sincere, impressive and somewhat intimidating individuals thus far. An indication of their sincerity is the level of interaction. Listening practices vary with different scenarios however, earnest interviewers, like true friends, listen intently and seek to engage in a discussion. In both instances, finding the right balance between talking and listening is vital to a successful engagement (no pun intended).

But that’s easier said than done and it’s understandable. The constant distraction of hand-held devices and television are formidable opponents to concentration. TV, like everything else, can be fabulous in limited quantities but overall, I think the invention of the television is worse than that of the H-bomb. The former is killing us, at least those of us in the tri-state area, slowly, with every possible entertainment venue and home overcrowded with TV screens. Forgive me as I cite one of my favorite TV shows to demonstrate. In a Remington Steele episode, the eponymous character drily says, “Television, Mildred, deadens the mind, corrupts the soul.” As strange as it may sound, given the current climate, the intensity of an interviewer’s focus on me and what I am saying is somewhat disconcerting and therefore leads to mistakes.

Sometimes my mistakes are obvious, in irreversible retrospect, and sometimes they’re not. And who do we have to guide us along this path? How do we know what and how to improve? Unlike with our jobs, in which our managers are paid to make sure we learn from our mistakes, help us acquire new skills and ultimately succeed, the process of networking and interviewing is one we handle mostly on our own. Occasionally interviewers and headhunters will proffer some insights but such guidance doesn’t exist with networking unless we are accompanied by someone we know and they feel secure enough in the relationship to offer constructive input (read: criticism). I rely on input from people I trust and frankly, talking about failures is not fun so I do it sparingly and instead, employ the tried and true method of trial and error. It’s proving to be a lengthy process for a novice like me and unfortunately, unlike networking, interviewing is a one-shot deal.

The big, bad world of job hunting is an uncomfortable place to be, with all its encouraged networking and mandatory interviews. Lots of people will try to sell you panaceas along the way but there are numerous ways to find a job and countless ways to meet people. It’s best to utilize as many as possible; you never know what will work until you try. If you decide to pay for a coach, please make sure you see them face-to-face; too many of us try to multi-task while on the phone. And as for networking, it isn’t all bad. Remember my amazing friend Ariella? I met her at a networking event and she has truly enriched my life. But ultimately, my recommendation is- caveat emptor! Find your way to make it happen.