Is Your Employee Engagement Being Led by Captains or Coaches?

In an earlier article, I suggested that employee engagement is a full-contact sport where manager and employee collaborate together as an integrated team.  Sticking with that theme, I submit there is a big difference between managers who function as coaches and those who are team captains.  If you want an engaged team, be a captain!

Captains are frequently (if not continuously) on the playing field.  Their perspective enables them to not only clearly see what’s happening, but personally experience conditions.  They can see when certain tactics aren’t working and have a unique perspective on why.  Great team captains earn the respect of their teammates, are incredible motivators, and are relatable.  After all, they’re getting hit every bit as much as the other players are.

In order to develop a high performing engaged team, managers need to have a first-hand view of the landscape.  Coaches lead their teams from the sidelines where it’s difficult to appreciate what employees are experiencing. That may work in some instances, but only if a manager is using feedback from players on the field.

Employee engagement happens on the front line where the game is played.  Management can create conditions for success, equip their team with the right tools, and lend considerable experience when crafting the game plan.  But at the end of the day, it’s the captains on the field that are executing the plan.  They are in the best position to know what is working and what isn’t. 

Ever heard someone say ‘just stick to the game plan’ when things aren’t working?  I have seen this first-hand when a new employee engagement effort is rolled out and quickly falls apart.  It’s the age-old definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.  If your game plan isn’t working, it’s time to find out why and adjust.  Players (employees) give feedback on field conditions, team captains (front-line leaders) lend their experience and first-hand reports, then coaches (company leadership) incorporate that into a revised plan.

Executives should enable first-line leaders (captains) to make real-time adjustments versus waiting for plays to be called in from the sidelines.  

How does this work in practice?  The US military for example trains its platoon leaders and personnel to read conditions on the ground and adjust their tactics as necessary.  Once the mission and strategy have been established and communicated, those with ‘boots on the ground’ have the freedom to maneuver and shift as things unfold.  This in no way compromises the mission.  Instead, it fosters creativity, critical thinking, and dynamic decision-making.

To develop a truly engaged organization, senior leaders must either function as team captains or delegate a degree of freedom to those in the field of play.  I’m not suggesting the C-suite micromanage.  Instead, select leaders who are effective team captains, empower and equip them with tools, then give them authority to shift as conditions warrant. 

Employee engagement is really not very different from team sports.  The best sports teams are those where everyone is working in synch focused on the same goal and executing the same game plan (strategy).  Each individual has a function, knows their position, and is aware of how their actions affect their teammates.  It’s really not that complicated. 

So ask yourself.  Are my employee engagement efforts being led by coaches or captains?  If you’re relying on coaches, you have no leader on the field and you’re likely going to lose the game.  Find yourself some great captains then trust them enough to lead you to victory.

Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, an employee engagement specialist, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate growth.  He provides front-line leadership development and helps clients improve operational alignment.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.

Wasting Money on Employee Engagement?

In my last post, I made the point that many employee engagement (EE) initiatives are a hoax.  In this article, I will elaborate on that point and assert that most investments in EE are a waste of time and money.  This may be offensive for those of you who are EE professionals.  In fact, when I discussed these points with a close colleague who does EE for a living, his response was “Are you out of your mind!”  So at the risk of alienating or angering the EE community, let me make my point.

First, if you’ve been involved in EE efforts for some length of time, you will relate to the following scenario:

A senior executive decides the organization needs to improve its employee engagement.  A small team is formed and they buy the services of a reputable EE consulting company.  The effort is rolled out with great fanfare, employees are strongly encouraged to have their voices heard, and there is a corresponding flurry of effort to respond to the survey results.  However, after 3-6 months, the energy level is down and the topic is rarely discussed in leadership meetings.  One executive expresses dissatisfaction with the consulting firm hired to do the survey and assist in implementation.  At this point, the initiative goes on the trash heap with other “failed” projects and is soon forgotten.

What went wrong?

Nearly every EE professional I’ve worked with has a similar story to tell.  You see, the effort was initiated on the false premise that the company could do something to “make” the employees more engaged.  Therefore, after the pixie dust settled and the consultant took their magic wand to their next project, the effort died (in some cases quickly).  The point of my previous article was that the decision to be engaged or disengaged is a personal choice that can be influenced by the company but never coerced.  When companies invest money to bring the latest consultant or guru in to “fix” their engagement problem, they are building on a false foundation and once the hard work begins and positive results haven’t started pouring in, leadership can lose patience and confidence.  As an EE professional, you can relate to the frustration of working with an executive team that demands fast results, wants visible progress, and then blames you or the whole notion of EE for having been a waste of time and money.

Don’t get me wrong – the executive suite has a lot to do with creating the environment for engagement.  But if you’re looking for employees to embrace their work and support the company, engagement starts with first-line leaders and supervisors.  Policies, culture, and resources can be improved to enable the engagement process to unfold, but if first-line leaders lack the training and support to be effective, employees on those teams will decide not to engage.  Any initiative pushed from the top down is doomed to fail from the beginning if not accompanied by an equally strong or stronger focus on first-line leaders.

Consider a different approach.  First review company policies, culture, and environmental factors to ensure consistency with the values and objectives of the organization.  Address areas of misalignment where necessary and enable employees to perform at their best under all circumstances.  For example, if your vision or policies state that you value innovation, yet managers routinely discipline employees for bringing forward new ideas, the disconnect will create disengagement.  Enabling performance is what the executive team can do best, not trying to force engagement to happen.  Second, start working closely with first-line leaders.  Make sure they have the training and support they need to be world-class leaders that employees admire and want to work with.  While this might not be considered “engagement” in the purist sense, the net result is the same.  Something as simple as communication training and coaching can go a long way to improving the effectiveness of a new leader.  Companies frequently invest in this type of support for their senior executives, but often, habits and poor leadership styles are already ingrained at that point and more difficult to change.  Start early and avoid the potential issues later.  Also help your first-line supervisors connect the dots between their teams and your bigger picture.  Give them tools and resources to have that dialog on a regular basis.  You might consider some illustrations or frameworks that allow these supervisors to speak to the company’s vision and strategy in simple, practical terms easily translated to a range of work activities.  If supervisors begin feeling connected with the company’s strategy, it will positively affect the teams they lead.

So next time you’re tempted to spend a lot of money to roll out a new EE initiative, take a moment and think carefully about your objectives.  Is your organization prepared to capitalize on an employee engagement effort?  Are your policies, procedures, and culture aligned and consistent?  Are you doing everything you can to support your first-line leaders?  If you can answer yes to all or most of these questions, then the added investment of a survey and some outside assistance may be a good investment.  If not, I would recommend you wait and work to address these issues first.  Save your money until you’re better prepared.  The types of things I’m recommending are usually within the capabilities and resources of the company – you don’t need to pay an “expert” to tell you what should be common sense. 

Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.

Measuring Strategy – Why Less is More

Tools and techniques can help accelerate and measure strategic execution.  The Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan & Norton), Strategy-on-a-Page (Childress) and others are useful when applied in the proper context.  However, don’t become enamored with a tool at the expense of your results.  I’ve seen organizations lose focus on outcomes because they blindly embraced a specific tool.  The tool became the focus instead of performance.  Sometimes, the simplest (and most obvious) approach is more effective.

Organizations are like the human body.  Each body has a unique chemistry and responds to a treatment differently.  While diagnosis may prescribe certain types of treatment, the treatment must be tailored to an individual to ensure proper care.  Use your strategic execution tools with the same caution.  If a specific approach doesn’t address the underlying symptoms, adapt or abandon it.  You can do more harm than good if you use a tool ill- suited for the need.  Doctors live by the Hippocratic Oath “first do no harm” - consultants should do the same.

Strategic execution tools, like medical instruments and methods, are designed to address specific circumstances.  When you use an approach that is not designed for its intended purpose, you can make a situation worse.  You may also mask the underlying organizational symptoms and issues, making it more difficult to discover a root cause.  Organizations are a complex system of interrelated components that affect each other.  Making a change in one area impacts others.  I’m reminded of the challenges faced by physicians when prescribing medication.  Each person’s genome  and body chemistry is different and responds to medication in unforeseen ways.  Using combinations of drugs to address different symptoms can potentially create new problems.  That’s why doctors consider side effects when combining different treatments and adjust those treatments accordingly.  This holistic approach treats the entire system, not just one organ.  Likewise, organizations must be viewed holistically so that measures taken in one area don’t create negative effects somewhere else.

As consultants, we must exercise the same caution as doctors.  We have to constantly assess the overall health of our clients as change is applied.  We also need to be mindful of our limitations and seek a specialist when necessary. I can say from experience how frustrating it can be when the wrong tool or technique is crammed into a situation.  If your preferred method isn’t right for the situation, be honest with the client and recommend another path even if it’s not your own. 

I’m reminded of Occam’s Razor where the simplest explanation is usually the most appropriate.  Only when simpler methods are shown to be insufficient do complex tools and techniques have a place in analysis and change initiatives.  One model I frequently turn to is David Snowden’s Cynefin framework.  This tool can be used to frame and analyze the situation one is dealing with.  From a critical thinking perspective, the Cynefin framework succinctly lays out guidelines that allow you to categorize and approach problems.  Below is an example I often use with groups when addressing the topic of framing and analyzing a problem.

Rural villages were experiencing high levels of infant mortality.  Many of these villages suffer from poor prenatal nutrition.  Low birth weight newborns were found to suffer from hypothermia.  Most villages lack reliable electricity and incubators are far too expensive. Is this problem, complex, complicated, chaotic, or simple?   How would you address this problem? 

For many groups I work with, they seek answers in the areas of nutrition.  Some explore means to improve access to electricity through solar or other means.  Others seek solutions to drive down the cost of incubation.   These approaches all suggest a complex or complicated approach.  However, the problem is simple.  Babies need to be kept warm when born.  The solution was found in what is known as Kangaroo Care where babies are swaddled in a blanket taking advantage of the mother’s own body heat.  While the other issues are important, the fundamental issue is one of preventing hypothermia.  Many of us over-complicate a problem too early in the analysis process.  For those of us who are engineers, it’s second nature to view each situation through a lens of complexity – it makes it more challenging.  However, by doing so, we often overlook the obvious.  The key point – start simple.  Don’t jump to a complex or complicated approach until you’re sure it’s the most relevant path to a solution.

 

I have experimented with many tools and often adapt them to address specific conditions.  In all cases, the first step in using a tool starts with an organizational analysis to identify the driving issues, objectives, strategies, and operating conditions.  This analysis doesn’t require an exhaustive review – a focused approach will quickly uncover the most relevant issues.  Getting to a good diagnosis doesn’t require months of work and hours of reviews.  A simple tool such as the Prana Business PBLine-of-Sight™ diagnostic can rapidly uncover drivers affecting organizational performance.  With a good diagnostic baseline in place, it becomes possible to pinpoint areas where change will have maximum effect.

The end game is positive results for the organization.  Any tool or technique that is not focused on that outcome is wasted time, money, and organizational energy.  With a good diagnostic baseline established, you can then apply the Pareto Principle and identify the 20% of change that will deliver the 80% of improvement.  The client’s return on investment is the most important metric for a consultant.  Deliver that ROI and your clients will keep on coming to you for help. 

Remember, it’s not about the tools it’s how you use them.  Apply the right tool in the right way and you’ll serve your client better.  In the end, the ROI results will speak for themselves and you’ll earn your client’s respect and trust.

Duane Grove is the founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.

Unlock Engagement – the Secret Combination

Many companies have employee engagement initiatives.  Resources and tools are proliferating at blinding speed.  A simple search on the topic yields millions of results.  With so much information it can be daunting to sort out what is right for your company.  One approach can be found at the intersection of strategy and first-line leaders.  Spin the dial with that combination and you can unlock your workforce.  Let me outline how.

I’ve worked with many organizations designing and implementing employee engagement initiatives.  Despite industry and organizational differences, they all have a few things in common.

1.              Employees express dissatisfaction in understanding the organization’s strategy.

2.              An employee’s relationship with their immediate manager has a far greater impact on engagement and performance than any other factor.

3.              Employees lack sufficient line-of-sight between the work they perform and the unique value the company delivers to its customers.

The secret to unlocking engagement in your workforce is at the intersection of these factors.  The golden key is in the hands of your first-line leaders.  Engage this group and magic begins to happen.

Now what is our strategy?

One of the most common mistakes executive teams make is assuming a strategy presentation to employees is sufficient.  If that approach were effective why do most employees report a lack of awareness?  An organization’s strategic plan is generally written in C-suite terms not easily translatable into work-unit relevance.  I’ve personally experienced employees leaving a strategy presentation or finishing a webcast saying “did you understand a word they said?”.  You can’t assume employees will connect the dots between their work and your strategy.  If you believe that employees should know and understand the strategy, you have to express it in terms they relate to.

Here’s where first-line leaders can make a tremendous difference.  Help these leaders connect the dots and they become ambassadors with far greater influence than the front office.  Strategy at this level has to be localized.  This effort may appear to be more tactical than strategic, but strategy itself is a matter of perspective; what is strategic at one level may be tactical at the next level up.  Help supervisors appreciate how their team’s effort aligns with key elements of the strategy.   Work directly with this group and if necessary iterate until you find messages that resonate.

First-line leaders are the tipping point

The adage “employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers” has been supported by studies.  I have numerous personal examples where a manager’s relationship was the critical factor in a decision to leave or stay.  Just recently, a colleague shared that his recent decision to change companies was driven entirely by his relationship with his manager.  In his case, he had been heavily recruited by a competitor for nearly two years but stayed because of the great relationship with his manager.  He reluctantly decided to leave after it became clear that leadership above his manager was unwilling to acknowledge his value.  I personally left a position years ago because my manager failed to keep a commitment then lied about it when confronted.  I’m sure you can recall similar situations.

If the evidence is so compelling, why are first-line leaders one of the most neglected in so many companies?  What often happens is a high-performing individual contributor gets rewarded with a team lead or some other supervisory role, then is left to figure out how to lead.  In the absence of leadership training and positive mentoring, they look above for examples.  Unfortunately, the examples they may emulate are not setting the best example.  This new leader assumes that the behaviors and skills of those ‘more accomplished’ is what it takes to succeed.  Ever consider how a poor senior manager became that way?  Look no further than their first leadership assignment.  Chances are, they received little or no training or support.  Since these first-line leaders have such profound impact, make sure they receive training and support consistent with the leadership culture you want.  Invest as much or more in these leaders as you do those above them.

I Can See Clearly Now …

Employee engagement accelerates with a laser focus on first-line leaders.  These people are closest to the work and have the greatest impact on employees.  First-line leaders should have a clear line-of-sight to the company’s strategy and the right tools to effectively communicate its relevance to their team.  Employees can then identify the importance of their individual efforts to the company’s objectives.  A sense of affiliation and ownership can develop that leads to higher levels of accountability and engagement. 

What about mid-upper level management?  What should their role be in employee engagement?  Why not start at the top and flow initiatives down through the organization?  These are typical questions and reflect the traditional command-n-control management style.  You do want to engage these leaders and work directly with first-line leaders at the same time.  You want to focus on improving visibility and alignment between first-line leaders and the strategy.  You work with mid-upper level management on exercising consistent behavior in alignment with the strategy and in supporting their first-line leaders. 

Making the Combination Work for You

When I work with clients on improving employee engagement, I encourage them to focus on the connection between their strategy and their first-line leaders.  I don’t ignore other layers of management entirely but work to simplify and localize strategy in a way readily consumable and applicable at the work-unit level.  In other words, light an engagement fire in the basement, and let the heat rise.  Surround your first-line leaders with examples and tools aligned with your strategy and consistent with the leadership culture you value.  Listen intently to what these leaders are saying and show a preference to addressing their needs.  Recognize teams at the lowest possible level that are engaged and aligned.  Make positive examples of them.  It’s hard and tedious work, but the rewards are worth it.

Looking for additional tips on strategy and employee engagement?  Browse through Duane's blog.

Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.

You’ve Got a Great Strategy – Now What?

Over the last 12 months, you led your team through a significant revamp of your strategy.  The economy and changing customer habits forced a ground-up review and restructuring.  Buying dynamics shifted substantially, loyal customers started experimenting with other solutions, and years of cost containment measures have taken a toll on employee morale.  You invested nearly $500,000 with a marque consulting firm to guide you through the process.  After all that time and energy, you now have a new strategic plan and you’re ready to launch.  How confident are you it will work and return your company to growth?

You’ve done all the right things along the way.  You involved your leadership team in the strategy formulation process.  After long evenings and weekends, they say they’re 100% committed to the new plan.  You took great pain to develop action plans and establish new performance metrics.  The new strategy requires significant change, some restructuring, and revisions to the tried and trusted culture.  You feel ready to deploy.  Employee meetings have been scheduled and each executive has a communication package to explain the new strategy.  With all this preparation, you feel ready to launch, but are you?

Does this story sound familiar? 

Across the business world, companies facing significant disruption are engaged in this kind of exhaustive strategy renewal process.  Most will fail to achieve the rates of growth and change envisioned in the plan.  In fact, the investment in strategy consulting, market analysis, and change initiatives will likely yield disappointing returns.  Why does this happen?  Great executives and leadership teams exercising sound business logic and measured decision-making routinely face a litany of disappointing results.  What are they missing?

Great strategies absent exceptional execution will fail to deliver every time.  Instead of achieving the planned high rates of return and accelerated growth, most settle for marginal growth and continued disruption from competitors.  But the key to strategic execution doesn’t rest in the executive team or the plan.  Execution happens when an organization gets into alignment from the bottom to the top.  Alignment requires that employees have a clear line-of-sight between the work they do and the strategy.  Alignment doesn’t occur by briefing employees on the strategy or change program.  If that’s the extent of your plan, you’re on the path to failure. 

Employees must not only understand the “what” of the strategy in practical and relevant terms, they must also embrace the “why” and “how”.  And when it comes to “how” in particular, you can accelerate change by actively engaging employees.  When employees are involved in shaping how change is implemented, they accept and implement it at a faster rate.  Engagement at all levels is critical; don’t just rely on your leadership team to cascade the strategy through layers of the organization. Use as many means as possible to communicate and keep it concise.  Simplicity enables the key elements of the strategy to be clearly communicated on a consistent basis leaving no room for interpretation.  This means boiling down your detailed strategy into imperatives to which employees can relate

If you’re committed to your strategy's success, the best investment you can make is to focus on alignment.  To start, you need to understand the current state of alignment in your organization and then routinely reevaluate as its execution unfolds.  There are numerous tools available that measure engagement and alignment.  I use the PBLine-of-Sight™ developed by Prana Business.  I’ve used many tools over 25 years leading strategic development and employee engagement initiatives.  I prefer this tool because it provides rapid results in a simple form.  Spotting misalignment early will keep the plan on the right track.  Measuring progress enables you to anticipate and predict future performance.  Regardless of which evaluation tool you use, it’s imperative that you not only have an alignment baseline, but have ongoing progress measurements and make adjustments based on quantifiable outcomes.

To learn more about successful strategic alignment, contact me or visit the Connect2Action Assessment page.

Duane Grove is the founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.