According to Gallup, only 15% of the world’s one billion full-time workers are engaged at work. Let’s just stop and think about that for a moment. 85% of people are not engaged at work. Due to this disengagement, we often see destructive, bullying behaviour in the workplace or hear of employees talking negatively about their company to friends and family. Not a good result.
While you are thinking about the 15%, think about the loss of productivity and the amount of time wasted. It is staggering.
This article also points out the following; Employees everywhere don’t necessarily hate the company or organisation they work for as much as they do their boss. Employees — especially the stars — join a company and then quit their manager (Clifton, 2017).
This reminds me of the quote from Marcus Buckingham who said “people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers’
You can see the theme I am going for here. As a manager, business owner or leader you are responsible for your team’s performance. But gone are the days of the autocratic management style and the sadly facilitated performance reviews, (which never worked anyway) or the “my way or the highway” approach. So, how do you manage your team’s performance without taking on this archaic approach?
Communication. Simple. To help improve your communication with your team, think about the following:
- How often do you communicate with your team? Do you talk at them or with them?
- How often do you honestly listen to what they are saying, or take note of what they are not saying? Providing them with 100% of your attention? No devices to distract your attention.
- How often do you shift employee appointments for other “more important” meetings?
- Think of each one of your employees and rate your professional relationship with them from 1 to 10. Do you know if they have children? Who are their favourite sports teams, their favourite foods? What do you need to improve on in this area? Building trust with your team members starts with building relationships.
- Are you are aware of their different personality traits and what motivates them? We are all unique and therefore need to be managed differently.
- How often do you let them make the final decision?
- How often to you reward and recognise them?
This list could go on, but I need to end this post. The moral of the story is that your employees are the most important people in your business. Instead of just agreeing with this statement, action it. Show them that they are important by changing your attitude and behaviour towards them. Walk the talk!
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