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Archive for the ‘Employee Engagement’ Category

A Follower Worth Leading

In Employee Engagement, Leadership, Teamwork on May 2, 2011 at 8:03 am

Last week, we challenged leaders to take a hard look at themselves to see if they were “a leader worth following.”

This week, we turn it around to challenge followers … to see if they are a follower worth leading.

In our work, we see all kinds of organizational pathologies.  One of the most damaging is employees who undermine their boss, and “throw them under the bus.”  This kind of behavior kills organizational performance, and must not be tolerated.

So, what makes someone a follower worth leading?  Great followers:

  • Accept (and implement) decisions that they were not included in
  • Highlight their boss’s strengths, rather than criticize their weaknesses
  • Express concerns privately and directly, rather than at the water cooler
  • Give the boss’s initiatives their very best, even if they don’t fully agree with them
  • Keep their word, meet their deadlines, and make their numbers … not one-time, but every time

Great leaders are rare.  But perhaps great followers are even rarer.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust. 

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

Closing the Gap

In Employee Engagement on June 21, 2010 at 8:52 am

In the DC area, 50 companies were selected as Best Places to Work … but thousands were not selected.  Many applied for the award but did not win.  Some chose not to apply.  Others were afraid to even try, often because they did not want to confront the brutal facts of how their employees really felt.

The issue is not the award, since many great organizations did not win.

The real issue is, “Is every employee contributing at the absolute maximum of their potential?”

If not, why not?

So, think about each of your employees, and consider two things:

  • What is their maximum potential contribution?
  • What is their current contribution?

The gap is contribution that you are paying for but are not getting.

High-performance organizations are exceptional at maximizing the contribution of every single employee.  They put people before profits … and ironically, that is exactly why they are so profitable.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

The Best Practices of Best Places – The Diversity of Winners

In Employee Engagement on June 14, 2010 at 8:01 am

On Friday 6/11, the Washington Business Journal held the Best Places to Work award breakfast.

It was a rah-rah event with a movie theme.  Each of the winners had to select a movie that best represented their companies.  At first, it seemed a bit hokey … but it actually revealed just how diverse the winners are.

Answers included The Godfather 2, The Right Stuff, Get Shorty, Shrek, and Alice’s Restaurant.

This diversity reflected the wide range of organizations who won this year, and a few of them are really surprising.

  • Jim Koons Automotive – the first place winner in the large company with local headquarters category.  Can you imagine that a car dealership has the highest employee engagement score of any large company?
  • Miriam’s Kitchen – the only non profit winner.  Their wages are low, their hours are long, and the job demands are overwhelming.  Which just proves that inspiring leadership can overcome any obstacle.
  • Quest Diagnostics, The Meltzer Group, HITT Contracting, and Davis Construction all have won four times in a row.  This proves that it is possible to maintain exceptional employee engagement through good and bad economies.

As I’ve mentioned, two of Dashboard’s clients were among the 50 winners.  Congratulations again to Group W (www.groupw.com) and BTI (www.bti360.com).

The Best Places to Work awards process starts again in 9 months – and the best leaders are already in top gear.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.



The Winners Circle – Best Places to Work Awards

In Employee Engagement, Uncategorized on May 10, 2010 at 9:03 am

Each year, the Washington Business Journal recognizes the 50 best places to work in the greater Washington area.

These awards are based on the results of the Best Places to Work employee engagement survey, which was developed by Quantum Workplace.  The survey contains 37 questions and used a six part Likert-scale model (strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat agree, agree and strongly agree).

Unlike other workplace awards programs, there is no subjective element in selecting the winners … judges don’t tip the scales based on their opinions or advertising revenue.  The employee engagement score is the only criteria.

The BPTW program yields tremendous benefits.  In our opinion, an organization’s employee engagement number is a critical one on the Dashboard.  Every participant gains statistically valid data about employee engagement, which can help them improve their performance.

According to Quantum, organizations with employee engagement scores in the top ten percent experience measureable results, including:

  • 87% show increased revenue
  • 86% report increased market share
  • 57% report lower employee turnover

Congratulations again to the winners.  Full speed ahead!

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking.  Accelerate Your Results.

The Winner’s Circle

In Employee Engagement on May 3, 2010 at 6:33 am

I always tell my clients, “Building a high-performance organization is really hard … which is why they are so rare.”

This week, two of my clients were selected as winners of the Washington Business Journal’s Best Places to Work Awards. I’m not sure who was more excited, me or them.

This is an incredible accomplishment. Winning this award is highly competitive. Unlike other awards where the magazine’s editors decide who wins based on opinions and anecdotes, the Washington Business Journal’s award is based on purely quantitative metrics.

The company’s employees complete a 37 question survey administered by Quantum Workplace. Quantum crunches the numbers and calculates an overall employee engagement score. The companies with the highest scores win.

Hundreds of companies took the survey … but only 50 were selected … and 2 of the 50 were my clients. Wohooo!

So congratulations to BTI (www.bti360.com) and Group W (www.groupw.com) for winning this prestigious award. You are in the Winner’s Circle.

More on these amazing companies in the next few weeks.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking. Accelerate Your Results.

The Dynamics of Executive Alignment – Part 2

In Alignment, Employee Engagement on April 26, 2010 at 7:40 am

As we said last week, if you want to build a high-performance organization, you have to start at the top.

However, executive alignment is very difficult to accurately measure and diagnose.  Traditional employee engagement measures fail to capture the unique dynamics of executive relationships.

  • Executives are responsible for complex strategic decisions.  These decisions are often hotly debated, and can create division and conflict.  Losers are expected to implement decisions that they disagreed with.
  • Rapid executive turnover is highly disruptive.  CEO tenure is often measured in months, not years.  Change agents are brought in, and blame the old guard – many of whom are still around.
  • Executives compete for resources, recognition, and promotions, which often feels like a zero-sum game.
  • Executive compensation often favors individual performance and not overall corporate performance.
  • Executives often devise their own measurement systems, designed to justify their decisions.  Some organizations have dozens of different Dashboards.

Given the unique role that executives play in setting and selling the strategy, getting them aligned is critical.  Aligned with the strategy.  Aligned with the values.  Aligned with the key decisions.  Aligned with each other.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking.  Accelerate Your Results.

What’s on Your Dashboard – The One Number – Part 2

In Alignment, Employee Engagement on April 12, 2010 at 11:05 am

Smart leaders know that simplifying the metrics down to One Number makes it possible for every employee to know exactly what the goals are, how they are measured, and how their job fits in. Lots of numbers are important, but it is the job of the leader to define which one is the most important.  Therefore, one of a leader’s greatest challenges is to define the right measure of success.

Revenue.  Revenue Growth.  Profitability.  Market Share.  Customer Satisfaction.  Net Promoter.  Employee Engagement.  Human Sigma.  Economic Value Added.  Return on Assets.  Earnings per Share.  Share Price.  All of these (and more) are good numbers.

Which one is the most important?  That depends on how you define success.

Ideally, find one number that is simple to measure and simple to communicate.  Something that is a leading indicator, rather than a look in the rear-view mirror.  Something that drives your economic engine, fuels your growth, and ignites your passion.

Our bias is that one of the greatest indicators of future success is Employee Alignment.  Because no matter what your business card says, you are really in the people business.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking.  Accelerate Your Results.

The Rear View Mirror – Part 3 – Assessing Employee Alignment

In Alignment, Employee Engagement on March 21, 2010 at 6:46 am

While you are looking in the rear view mirror at your followers, it is helpful to assess their alignment.

Aligning diverse individuals into one high-performance organization is extremely challenging.  Each person has their own ambitions and agenda, shaped by their unique values, experiences, and world-view.  Some are fully on-board.  Some are reserving judgment.  Others are passive-aggressive.  A few will shake your hand and smile while they stab you in the back.

To help leaders assess their employees, the Dashboard Group developed the Employee Alignment Model.  It categorizes employees into one of five levels of alignment:

A-Players – The Top 20%

A-Players are totally aligned, on-board, positive, engaged, and enthusiastic about the organization and the strategy.  These are your allies, advocates, and ambassadors.

B-Players – The Middle 50%

B-Players have the potential to be A-Players, but are not convinced yet.  They have some “buts.”  They are the right people, but they have not gotten on the bus!

C-Players – The Volatile 10%

C-Players are the critics, complainers, cynics, and congenital naysayers.  They may have expressed endorsement, but it is just lip service.  They have checked out.

CA -Players – The Challenging 10%

There is a special kind of employee who often gets labeled as a C-Player, but is really a CA-Player.  These are the change agents.  There is a big difference between a change-agent who challenges assumptions, and a C-Player who criticizes everything.  What is the difference?  Motive.

D-Players – The bottom 10%

D-Players are disgruntled, discouraged, disenfranchised, and demoralize everyone around them.  Some are intentionally destructive, and their mission is to delay, detour, and derail.  You have to get them out ASAP.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking.  Accelerate Your Results.

Organizational Hypocrisy

In Employee Engagement on October 6, 2009 at 10:17 am

One of the root causes of disengaged employees is what we call “organizational hypocrisy” … where organizations say one thing but do another.

They say that employees are their greatest asset, but axe them without reservation as soon as the economy sours.

They say that the customer is number one, but don’t even measure customer satisfaction.  Worse yet, they don’t confront the brutal facts about their delivery performance issues because fixing the problem will cost too much.

They say one thing in their core values, but the resource allocation decisions say another.

They say that teamwork is essential to success … and even take the management team to a ropes course, but the executive bonus plan rewards only individual performance.

They preach excellence, but practice mediocrity.

Frankly, employees are rightfully cynical.  They witnessed so much dysfunctional behavior that they tune out the words.  It is just executive blah-blah-blah.

If you are serious about building a high-performance organization, focus more on your actions than your words.

The Most Important Number on Your Dashboard

In Employee Engagement on July 27, 2009 at 11:14 am

“Second only to your people, your information is your most important asset.”  EMC Corporate Overview

Based on this idea, it stands to reason that information about your most important asset – your people – is the most important information to have.  Therefore, the employee engagement number is the most important number on your Dashboard.

The research is clear and overwhelming.  Companies with high employee engagement outperform their competitors.  The Best Places to Work awards are based on a nationwide survey of over 4,500 organizations.  Winners are simply the organizations with the highest employee engagement score.  Winning the award produces tremendous benefits, including:

  • Increased retention by reducing the “grass is greener” turnover, which in turn reduces costs.
  • Increased quantity of job applications – winners receive 7 times the number of job applications, which means that winners get to select the best applicants from a much broader pool.
  • Increased quality of applicants, since the best people want to work for the best places.

Achieving these benefits requires a systematic approach … and a willingness to confront the brutal facts.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.

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