Good morning everyone,
How many of you work for an organization that you feel is just looking for someone to be a cog in a machine and not looking for the person to grow into something more?
How many of you feel like you if you speak up you will get yelled at, or worse fired for doing so?
A great deal of large organizations look for employees to fill a spot. I like the cartoon by Andertoons as it speaks to this truth. These same organizations then ask why they are not getting engagement from their employees. The organizations think making the environment fun will fill the engagement issue. Items like free pop, pop corn, bean bag chairs in the conference rooms etc are used in hopes that engagement will spirt up from caffeine and playfulness.
Gallop did a study and in late 2018 and reported that 34% of employees in corporate America are actually engaged. Gallop reported this as a positive because it is one of the highest levels since 2000. I disagree because 34% was a failing grade all throughout my education. Now there are some critics that will state that you’re never going to get everyone engaged and I agree. I do not believe that only having 34% being engaged is a good statistic.
I have spent most of my life in corporate America and understand why this is so low. Far too many organizations just look for someone to plug into a spot and have them do the same thing for the rest of their life. When someone brings a new idea for executing the business, it is often written off by a manger telling them to stick to their job. Keep in mind that manager’s purpose is to manage people and processes to keep moving smoothly. The manager’s duties revolve around making sure their group does not implode. They are too busy fighting fires and worn out keeping the people and processes going. These managers get burned out and become disengaged themselves.
Too many people in the leadership are not engaging the managers or the workers to encourage them to grow themselves. Unless people feel like the organization has their back and is rooting for them to grow, they will not want to spend the rest of their working careers just showing up. Hence the reason the turnover rate at corporation America is increasing. People are jumping from corporation to corporation for high pay and ultimately find themselves in the same predicament after the honeymoon phase of a new job wears off.
When the employee observes disengaged managers, the employee will start losing hope that things will get better and that their impact will mean something. How does this change? It takes one step at a time, prioritizing engaging our teams and ourselves. We need to look at “why” we are in the position we are in. Are we there just for a paycheck and health insurance, or are we there to make an impact? What aspect of this position keeps us coming back through the door?
We need to keep growing ourselves and encouraging those around us to grow. Take our teams out of the working environment on occasion to help them grow. This does not need to be trust falls, but it could be buying their lunches while watching a live stream, find a podcast for the team to listen to together, go to a conference, or read a book as a group and discuss collectively. In order to gain engagement, we need to engage those around us to grow every day. Don’t just bring the bean bags, bring the enthusiasm that people will feed off and show them that it is okay to grow. We need to show to our employees that we have their back and support their growth.
One last thought, we should not worry about pouring into those individuals and seeing them leave. Even though they may move on to bigger things, it will be noticed where all the rock stars are coming from in the organization. People will start recognizing our efforts and others will want to work for us because of the benefit of growth. Encourage, engage, and enable others, don’t just look for a body to fill a seat.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom