Engaging Hearts and Minds

There are three very daunting challenges for many organizational leaders in today’s economy:

1. Owners or Boards who expect more value to be created with the same or less headcount
2. A faster marketplace where competitors seem to emerge out of nowhere and anywhere with innovative value offerings
3. A workforce that expects to be able to “make a difference” in their work while enjoying all the world has to offer in their personal lives

What we see the most effective leaders doing is following the wise council that “what got you here, won’t get you there” (Marshall Goldsmith).  To address each of these 3 issues, using yesterday’s leadership strategies is a recipe for disaster.

Do you really expect your members of the “frozen headcount brigade” to work any harder?  No wonder employee engagement scores continue to plummet in most organizations. Research has shown a drastic decline in employee engagement since the start of the economic downturn, with the number of disengaged employees (those planning to exit) having risen dramatically over the past several years.

So, what to do, what to do…..

How about hugging the hearts and squeezing the minds of your team members?

It makes great business sense, since data has shown that “highly engaged” employees can deliver as much as 2.5 times the value of less engaged colleagues.  As an alternative to “turning up the speed on the production line”, think about creating the following elements of a high-performance environment for your organization; countless interviews with high-performance employees reveal the ingredients to the secret sauce of high employee engagement” as follows:

• They are clear about the organizations direction and goals going forward and trust their senior leaders know how to lead (hint: listen to the high-performance employees)
• They see how their work matters to the bigger goals (alignment)
• They have a direct “boss” who cares about them, their ideas and their future

Take a look at the “Top Ten” list below and think about what you can do to shift your organization and yourself away from the remnants of the now largely ineffective “Transactional” leadership style that served us well in the 20^th Century “Manufacturing” economy, to the rigour of Transformational Leadership required to succeed in the 21^st Century “Knowledge” economy.

Factor	20th Century Transactional Leadership	21st Century Transformational Leadership
Economic Engine	Manufacturing	Knowledge- Value-Added Services
Dominant Leadership Quality	Control through close Supervision	Trust through collaboration and empowerment
Common Leader Activities	Budgeting, Directing, Controlling, Maintaining, Allocating Resources, Problem Solving; Competing for Today	Aligning, Coaching, Motivating, Developing, Collaborating, Innovating, Thinking, Visioning, Empowering, Evaluating Preparing for Tomorrow
Value Driver/Employee	Production (Do!)	Innovation (Think!)
Motivation Methodology	Fear and Incentive (External Carrot and Stick)	Attitude (Internal and unique to each employee)
Motivation Focus	Managing behavior	Understanding and tapping into Individual Emotions, Beliefs and Values
Training/Development Focus	Training – focused on competencies, skills and techniques	Development – with attention to shifting employees’ views about themselves, their values and their sense of purpose
Training/Development Methodology	Largely event and classroom based on “book knowledge” of many topics	Largely action learning over time with internal mentorship, specific and measurable goals/ROI and focused on one key driver of improved leadership performance
Who primarily “Owns” the Training and Development	The company and/or “boss”	The employee or team member with alignment with the employer
Measuring Effectiveness of Training/Development	Can they describe it Get the certificate?	Can they do it Demonstrate new attitudes, a higher sense of purpose, values, behaviors and results (ROI)

Transformational leadership recognizes that in a service-oriented economy, unless one can engage an employee’s values and beliefs, they cannot and will not deliver customer value, much less engagement.  In today’s turbulent world, leaders must learn to influence people’s inner values and beliefs if they want to be effective.

We have seen many leaders grab hold of their organizations or departments and boldly venture down the path of creating this Transformational corporate culture.  The results are very impressive.

Leadership is personal.  It’s not about the company, the community, or the country.  It’s about you.  If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won’t believe the message.  If people don’t believe in you, they won’t believe in what you say.  And if it’s about you, then it’s about your beliefs, your values, and your principles.