Employee Presence versus Employee Engagement

Do you remember getting that perfect attendance sticker / pin / badge in infant school?  It was such a big deal, proving that you showed up on time every day for school, rain or shine.

In the workplace, attendance is also important - but it’s not a measure of effectiveness.

Whilst employees can show up every day to work it’s also possible for them to accomplish minimal productive work during that day.  Emails and meetings are two common activities that aren’t necessarily productive.  The difference between productivity and barely sustainable effort takes employee engagement.  The member of staff who’s fully engaged in their work is in agreement or alignment with the corporate goals and mission statement.  This person gets more than a paycheck every month, they also take home a greater sense of personal job satisfaction, perhaps not daily, but much more than once a month.

The UK Work Foundation discovered that the lower the job satisfaction level, the worse the productivity. Well no surprises there.  However when job satisfaction falls below 50%, productivity literally stagnates.  Research in 2002 found that the US and other countries competing with UK industries were 30% more productive than the typical UK worker.  And all the doom, gloom and continual talk of recession is hardly the obvious recipe for increasing happiness.  However that aside it’s possible to ride external factors by creating clear goals that inspire or at the very least motivate the team. 

 

Getting a job that matters to you

Wow, I’m still on a high after Friday.  The event “Getting a Job with Meaning” was a huge success, with everyone discovering useful insights and feeling more confident than ever about themselves.  Which in the current climate is a great asset.  I got to share my views on job fulfillment and walk my talk, because I was experiencing it as I was teaching it.  Plus filming and recording went really well and the product should be ready to go by mid October. 

Thank you to everyone involved, especially the attendees - you were amazing.

 

Business resilience in todays credit crunch economy

On the 22nd of September I’ll be giving a talk for the Turnaround Management Association . 

With continued talk of recession, the credit crunch and an increase in raw material costs, many businesses are facing challenges on all fronts.

I’ll be offering my views on the impact corporate culture has on all of this and the real bottom line benefits of building a values driven business.  It’s not THE answer to what’s going on in the world of business and the economy, but it makes a significant difference.

Join me where I’ll share :-

The new principles of business that are generating sustainability, resilience and shareholder value.

The results some organisations are seeing as a consequence of this.

The influence values and culture have on the success of Mergers and Acquisitions.

The importance that establishing a values culture can have even on a non-performing business.

 
Full details of the location etc are available here.

 

Authoritarian Leadership

Tyrannical leadership is an option, although not generally advocated in this day and age. Authoritarian is a softer word and then there’s controlling.  Aah the beauty of the English language, what a difference a word makes.  

So what do these tyrannical, authoritarian, controlling leaders have in common – well a view that what they say goes and an unquestionable belief that those they ‘lead’ will do what they say, because they say so.  The controlling ones say they listen to others opinions but after a while their staff have stopped giving opinions because they didn’t seem to count for anything.   So there becomes an unspoken work dynamic of  “I’m in charge and this is how we’re going to do it”, if you don’t like it get lost.”

Controlling leaders are more common than we give credit for.  Yet in essence this is a sign that it’s a manager who hasn’t grown and stepped up to the demands of leadership. The control element is often rooted in that person’s capacity to handle uncertainty and help others handle it.  If they can’t cope there’s very little chance they can lead others through it.

Is there a time for this style of leadership, certainly, if there is a crisis you want absolute clarity and instruction.  Great leaders have flexibility and a range of leadership styles.   Or they know what environment they’re best suited to lead in, knowing when they’ve done their job and the organization needs a different environment for continued growth, they move on.  The core of leadership is about fulfilling the needs of everyone involved in the organization.