So you’ve recognized the symptoms of a dysfunctional workplace—dishonesty, lip service, defensiveness, deflecting blame, conflict avoidance, gossip—and diagnosed the disease. You’ve confronted the problem head-on. Good work.
Now it’s time for the cure.
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We’ve all been there. You walk into a bank, restaurant or store and suddenly feel it, that vague sensation that all is not well. It drips from the ceilings and sits in puddles on the floor. The employees are lost in thought, unable to decide whether they’d rather be somewhere else or stay and kill each other. And you’re the lucky one bathing in all the poison they can ladle up.
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It’s true: money is a useful motivator. But according to a classic study at Ohio State University, it’s not the only motivator that increases employee engagement and productivity. Turns out it’s not even the most effective one.
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As our economic mess heads into its third year, business has never been more serious. It might seem an odd time to make a case for levity in the workplace. But The Levity Effect authors Scott Christopher and Adrian Gostick are doing exactly that.
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There’s a common misconception that the joyful, engaged workplace has to include a lot of waved pompoms, ringing bells, and people popping up like toast over their cubicle walls with a spontaneous WOOHOO!
While I’m all in favor of getting wild and crazy in the interest of workplace engagement, all this woohooing is only an outward expression of an inner joy. And while many workplaces can and should allow their joy to spill over into public view, some others—a hospital ICU, for example, or a funeral home—might call for a little discretion.
But not TOO much discretion. These workplaces are just as prone to dysfunctional, crazymaking behaviors as any other. And they can be even MORE prone to the negative, depressed emotions that can drag a workplace environment into the pits.
So let’s say I’m the owner of a funeral home. A few of my staffers spend half their time working and the other half making everyone else miserable—gossiping, whining, backstabbing, the works. I can’t exactly encourage my staff to put clown noses on the departed, or to woohoo and greet grieving family members with a hearty, “Hey, how’s it going, dude?” They wouldn’t be there if things were going well.
Workplace engagement is founded on mutual respect and on being of profound service to others. Both of these are as compatible with my hypothetical funeral home as they are with any other workplace.
That doesn’t mean people in these “discreet” lines of work can’t go a little crazy in celebration. You can and you should. A party in a funeral home could have a casket full of ice for the drinks and ladyfinger cookies covered with frosting and standing on end to look like tombstones. Why not? Okay, that is a little too weird.
But engagement doesn’t start with wild parties. It starts with employees who care for each other and treat each other with basic kindness. This it both a matter of what we do (“I remember your daughter wasn’t feeling well—is she better now?”) and what we don’t do (no gossiping behind someone’s back—giving OR receiving).
But it’s also a matter of reframing EVERY aspect of your daily work in terms of being of profound service to others. That, not employee cheer pyramids or conga lines through the lobby, are what transforms a workplace into a place of genuine engagement and joy.
© Milous Chab | Dreamstime.com
Change CAN happen if only some of your staff are on board. Engines can also run on three cylinders. But the result is nothing to crow about.
In order for an organization to have a huge and profound transformation, EVERY manager must vote in with their full heart—must pick up that hammer and ring the bell, every time.
There are reasons people head into a new initiative halfheartedly. So you have to ask for extreme honesty—ask each member of your team to go far beyond lip service as they answer this question: On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you to a breakthrough?
Most people will give an answer somewhere between 7 (“pretty committed”) and 10 (“committed out of my friggin’ mind”). A seven from any member of your team might just as well be a three for all the good it will do you. Anything less than 10 gives that person a place to hide, an escape clause, a reason to fail. “I wasn’t that committed anyway,” goes the tune.
And it just won’t do.
If anyone gives an answer other than 10, congratulate their honesty, then find out why. Some people will say, “I don’t have enough time,” or “Well, I don’t know. Explain breakthrough,” or “I’m a practical person. I can’t commit until I know EXACTLY what I’m committing to.” For each answer below a 10, you need to help them understand why their answer will end up hurting the rest of the management team because they must be a unified voice for a major breakthrough to happen.
Make it clear that the breakthrough you seek is not an extra credit assignment, above and beyond the job. It IS the job. “I don’t have time for the breakthrough” means “I don’t have time for my job.”
Watch out as well for those who say “10″ but mean something else. I remember seeing this played out hilariously once in a leadership meeting. The CEO had zeroed in on one poor schlub named Roger. When asked what he would be on the scale, Roger had mumbled, “Well, I suppose I’d have to be a 10.”
The entire boardroom burst out laughing. It was the least 10-ish tone of voice anyone had ever heard.
“That doesn’t sound like a 10 to me,” said the boss. “Let’s try that again.”
“Okay,” said Roger. “I guess the only right answer is 10.”
Again the room went to pieces with laughter. Even Roger smiled. He explained that he wasn’t really sure what the transformation was all about.
After every other member of the team had chimed in with enthusiastic explanations of what the transformation was about and how much they believed in Roger’s ability to rise to the challenge, he was asked again. And this time, he answered with conviction: “I’m a ten!”
Once everyone is fully on board at the highest level, willing to go the distance AND to hold each other accountable, there will be nothing in Heaven or Earth to stop you from achieving the profound and lasting transformation you need and deserve.
Mark your calendar! Next week on Wednesday, September 8, at 12:00 PM CT, we will be interviewing Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach and co-creator of the bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®. During the interview we will be discussing his book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. The Success Principles, co-authored with Janet Switzer, will teach you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live with passion and purpose, and realize all your ambitions. Not merely a collection of good ideas, this book spells out the 64 timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history. And the fundamentals are the same no matter what your profession or circumstances—even if you’re a student, stay-at-home mom or currently unemployed.
This is usually a private teleseminar for The Emmerich Group member clients — we offer these sessions and allow them to invite their prospects and their clients to help them develop business.
Based on the enormous response to our last teleseminars, I knew you would really value another chance to hear from a best-selling author. So, I’m inviting a handful of non-member organizations again.
This is a great opportunity to bring your whole team together for a Lunch ‘n’ Learn or team learning opportunity.
Join us for the call on September 8, 2010 at 12:00 noon CT for one hour to discover:
A teleseminar like this usually costs $500-1000 dollars or far more, depending on the size of your company. We are inviting you and your team for FREE as a special gift to prepare you for a better 2010—regardless of the economy.
Registration is easy! To sign up, go to www.ThankGoditsMonday.com/jack-canfield.
Space is filling up quickly so be sure to sign up right away!
Clear your schedule and register TODAY!
True employee engagement occurs when individuals apply the full measure of their creative energy and talent to performing work that wholly supports achievement of the organization’s goals. And while perfect engagement is not achievable, our experience and the Gallup Organization’s research reveal that a clear, forward-looking strategy aligned with the organization’s vision, values, and mission goals and translatable to the day-to-day activities of all organization members combined with inspiring leadership is absolutely essential to maximizing employee engagement.
Check out the resources and articles around Employee Engagement on the Strategy Driven website at their Employee Engagement Center of Excellence. There are some written by yours truly, but many articles by other experts as well!
© Gino Santa Maria | Dreamstime.com
There’s a song I love to play over the loudspeakers at my public events. The song is “Let’s Get it Started” by the Black-Eyed Peas, and we use it to call everybody back from break, to pump them up and get them ready to GET IT STARTED again!
We could use just about any high-energy song to get people’s attention, but this one has something special, and its right there in the title––Let’s get it started. It doesn’t say, “Let’s hope somebody else gets it started.” It’s about US, you and me, getting started and making things happen.
Maybe you’re playing a waiting game in your company, waiting for management to get the memo and start making a positive culture change happen. You’ve filled out enough suggestion cards to fill the old card catalog at the New York Public Library. Maybe you’ve even dropped a few heavy hints in person. Nothing. Ever. Happens.
Time to stop waiting. It’s time to get it started.
Culture change is first and foremost about a change in attitudes. It’s about making people feel appreciated, giving them a common goal, and helping them to have fun in the process. NONE of these requires a lot of money or time, and best of all, NONE requires the involvement of the head honchos.
Still, you don’t have to do this all alone. Certainly there are two or three other people who would like to see your workplace transformed. Put together an informal group––a “coalition of the willing”––and brainstorm ways to turn the place around. There is nothing more fun than taking the bull by the horns and watching as you turn around not just a workplace, but the lives of the people who spend half of their waking hours IN that workplace.
Here are three ways to get it started:
1. Create your own contest. If you know your company has an objective to sell 750 widgets a month, create a contest. Split your staff into teams. Have them report daily and put points for sales up on a white board. Hoot and holler, give out prizes for individuals and teams. Prizes don’t have to be expensive—people will knock themselves out for a chocolate kiss.
2. Start a low-key campaign against dysfunctional behaviors. Quietly enlist as many co-workers as possible in a pact to not engage in gossip, backstabbing, whining, or nay-saying, and to gently call others on it when they hear it in action.
3. Connect. It’s easy to crawl into our shells, keep our eyes on the floor, and forget that we’re surrounded by actual no-kidding people all day. Make an effort to meet the eyes of your co-workers. Smile and say hello. Ask about the family. This isn’t rocket science––but these simple connections can do more for transforming a workplace culture than the most elaborate system of incentives.
At the end of the first month, pull the team together to take a reading. Odds are very good that you’ll see evidence everywhere that things will never be the same.
© Brunoil | Dreamstime.com
“Dear Sir or Madam,”
“Have you heard about our new [product/service]? There has never been anything like it before. Best of all, it’s designed just for you, [prospective client name here]! Worry no more about [financial security/maximizing returns/funding college/on-time retirement]. Our [product/service] will fit your needs like a [glove/shoe/favorite T-shirt].”
Most marketing has gotten well beyond this level of obviousness, of course. But below the smoother surface of our mail-merges, much corporate thinking about marketing is still stuck in the one-size-fits-all mindset that should have gone out with legwarmers.
American Express was successful for years with the all-purpose slogan, “Don’t leave home without it.” But with the 1990s came the advent of a new consumer mentality, one that encouraged customers to feel that products and services were not generically designed for the masses but tailored “just for them.” American Express recognized this and retooled its approach, adopting its revised, targeted slogan, “The right card for the right people.” As Richard Weylman noted in Opening Closed Doors, AmEx had realized that “it is more important and effective to reach the right people than it is to reach many people.”
It’s one of the great insights of modern marketing. In today’s advertising climate, the wider you cast your net, the lower your marketing ROI. Instead, spend some time identifying and wooing the very specific fish that are most likely to bite on the bait you have to offer.
How do you identify these fish? Look around your tank. They’re already swimming in front of your nose. Your current happy customers are the best predictors of what your future happy customers will look like.
After all, your current happy customers are happy for a reason—they love what you have to offer. If you think of them as generic “customers” and go out looking for more “customers,” you are missing out on the golden opportunity to discover just what it is that brought them in and kept them with you. Do you have accounts belonging to young families? Realtors? Educators? Members of the Kiwanis? Golf-loving retirees? New homeowners? Each of these comes with specific needs and desires. Find out what they love and want, then build tightly targeted marketing around that subset of your local population.
And how do you find out what they love and what they want? ASK them! Remember that people love to talk about themselves. Send out a personal letter to every current client who recently bought a home. Tell them that you are eager to have more clients just like them. Who wouldn’t want to hear that? Ask what would make their lives easier—from actual financial products and services to a pizza delivered on Moving Day—then create it, advertise it, and reel ‘em in!
In the end, your marketing should consist not of one big blast of generic information, but six or eight smaller, more carefully crafted campaigns. Believe me—it’ll be the biggest bang for buck you’ve ever had.
