Kevin D. Crone - Monday Morning Mentor

Only 37 percent of employees say they are engaged in their companies. When we need every committed hand on deck to wake up our business, this becomes a problem. It is a capacity issue. It means:

A) We don’t have the people on the bus to help figure out what we need to do to grow the business. (Many are more interested in yoga, Dancing With The Stars, how their sports teams are doing, what is on TV tonight and where they are going on their next vacation)

B) More and more are disillusioned with corporate life. It is as if it doesn’t give them a feeling of security, let alone respect, achievement or recognition. In smaller companies, family politics, a lack of resources, and disorganization can quickly turn excited new hires into disinterested and discouraged participants.

C) We did a world wide survey and found that the global economic downturn is causing employees to retreat, to hunker down, to not be noticed, to not speak up, for fear of being a casualty. This can’t be healthy for a business that needs people to speak up every day with ideas and commitments to tackle the competitive world.

D) How does an organization change and work harder to improve the business when their minds and hearts aren’t in it?

E) How do you grow a business when two thirds of your team is disinterested in growing and getting better? How do you grow if your people aren’t learning, listening, and taking coaching and training? You’d better be prepared to do a lot on your own.

F) Leadership seems to be disappearing. Not many managers are coaching, leading and mentoring employees to success. Yet every manager seems to be busier with more information and decisions to make than ever. They become reactive and short term thinkers. Leadership is needed more than ever if the business is going to have the capacity to grow.

So these six issues cause us not to have the capacity to find, keep and deliver on our offering to our customers and prospects. Yet you need to rethink the business, implement changes, and work a lot harder to get the same results. Can we do something about engagement and capacity? Of course we can. Here are five practical ways to improve – things you can do something about:

1) Engagement means to us, “allowing employees to think through on their own” how they can help the business grow. Realize that no one can hear what you are saying. People generally have to figure things out on their own. This is hard to understand, but few employees today understand memos, emails and even speeches. With so much input coming at everyone it becomes background noise and very little sinks in. So what are we doing? People can get lost in the process of life and business and all the details. Get your employees to sit down to widen the lens they are looking through. Ask the big questions. Challenge them to answer the big questions like “how you make customers more successful? How you make money. What their role is in it. Generally, everyone wants to be involved, a bit in control, to be part of the solution and the future. Have group meetings or one-on-one sessions. When you are telling instead of asking, your people are going to sleep. They are not engaged. Good luck with goal achievement. Putting the right people on the bus is job one but if they feel they are just a brainless worker, then all they are doing is just taking up a seat and are just a expense. That’s your fault.

2) Involve everyone in mutual goal sessions. That is a common practice of managers but we suggest going one step further. Ask your people about their personal goals (Finances, family, fitness or health, recreation Etc.) It is hard to remember all the time because we are probably intensely committed to business and its goals but believe it or not, people do things for their reasons, not ours. We have to find out what people want and help them get it. The best at that was an old friend, Eugene Walsh who spent a lot of time getting to know his people’s goals and a lot more showing his people how they could achieve them through helping the company achieve its goals. Eugene’s executive teams never could understand why he was so successful.

3) Managers need to coach, mentor, and take responsibility to train and develop people. I mean get committed to them. People generally want to feel they are growing, learning, and are being assisted with what they need to do to stay employed, then to contribute and get ahead. In reality, the commitment goes down once the hiring and initial orientation period is over. They become a piece of furniture that talks. Promises don’t count, expectations go down and employees begin to act like a piece of furniture. I have seen too often that the employees’ commitment to grow is greater than the manager’s to coach. I have seen many managers who had to stick their neck out and hide or camouflage their training costs for fear of reprisal. You can treat your people like they are cattle with a price on their head or you can keep commitments to build them, put their names in your calendar and spend time mentoring them. Always keep your word, never put them down or talk down to them in front of others.

4) You knew this was coming. Let your people know how they are doing in relationship to their goals and try to remember to talk in terms of their interest as well as the companies. Let them know when they do things well. Recognize them. Write them a note of appreciation every now and then. I wrote a note to one of my managers many years ago and attached it to a picture of him and myself for some reason, and he still has it on his wall. I had no idea how important that was to him. We never will. If you want engagement – get engaged. Court them. Love them. Take care of them. You know what I mean.

Enough said. If you want to grow your business then engage people. If you are interested in how, I suggest, as a starter, you:

• Ask people to think things through with you and cut down on telling.
• Find out what people want and help them get it. Involve them in mutual goal setting.
• Commit to and develop people. Stay committed to their success every day.
• Let people know how they are doing. Show appreciation, recognition and encouragement when you do.

Which of these four principles will you focus on this week? Remember, action is all there is.

Have a great week.

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We are excited about celebrating our one hundredth year beginning in January 2012. As result, we created an offering to give a selected number of businesses quick and easy ways to build their business. We are creating a list of those business people (owners and executives only, please) who want to be informed of this special offer in celebration of our 100 years. If you wish to be added to the list, click on my email below and we’ll keep you informed. Overall, these strategies and techniques will help you put innovation into your organization’s DNA, set up ways to grow revenues, operate in such a way that you can hit stretch goals and improve the capacity and competitiveness of your team.
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