Engage, Learn and Grow

This is my last entry for the year 2009. Next year, we’re planning something completely different for the 2 Minute Trainer – I think you’ll like it (but you’ll have to wait ‘til 2010 to find out).

It’s fitting, then, that the last in the series of 12 key indicators of employee engagement that we have been discussing is this:

“In the last year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow?”

Employees who are fully engaged will answer “YES!” to this question. Which makes me wonder, have I had opportunities to learn and grow this year? Have you?

It’s been a tough year for many people. More people than I can fathom lost jobs this year; real people, with real mortgages, electric bills and mouths to feed.

Others of us retained our jobs but saw the way we do business change. We tightened some belts and adjusted some spending, all the while grasping with both hands to hold onto our turf in an increasingly challenging playing field.

I have had moments – not this year, fortunately – when I simply asked for boredom; a year with no “opportunities for growth” that were really euphemisms for “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly the kind of growth the Gallup folks had in mind.

I like to think that they had in mind the kinds of opportunities to learn and grow that are fun and innovative; that take us out of our comfort zone and stretch us in a wonderful, exhilarating way.

Like the way I learned a whole new language when I got my iPhone (apps and app stores, for example). And then the way that I learned how to find almost anything at the touch of my finger, including where I left my car and what subway line to take back to the airport. It was fun to learn, and fun to explore a whole new area of knowledge and information.

Or the way my heart simply grew in size when our newest little god-daughter was born. It didn’t hurt a bit, and it was wonderful and amazing.

Could we embrace learning and growth at work in the same way? Could we help our team members experience this, too?

Have you seen the newest ads by the language company Rosetta Stone? The headline says, “What’s the best way to learn a new language? Act like a baby!” The ad points out that learning, for babies, is a thing of exploration and wonder. It’s magical and natural. It’s effective, too.

Somewhere along the line we started treating adult learning like a task – a requirement. It stopped being fun and joyful. It ceased being a natural by-product of our desire to learn more and more about our job, and continually increase our job skills.

Perhaps my wish for you, at the close of a year that may go down in the history books as the last year of the “decade from hell” (if Time magazine has its way), is that you will find, for you and your team, opportunities to learn and grow in the coming year that will inspire, enrich and energize you.

And that you’ll grow and prosper, both as a manger and as a member of this wonderful human family of ours.

Engage, evaluate

“It’s time for your annual evaluation.”

I don’t know about you, but that phrase sounds suspiciously like, “Please come to the principle’s office.”

It’s not a request, it’s a summons. You know that nothing good is going to come from it. In fact, you suspect that something very, very bad could be sneaking up on you in the form of “annual eval time.”

Interesting, Gallup’s #11 item on the list of 12 key expectations that measure employee engagement is this: “In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?”

Note that an annual evaluation only yields a “yes” answer for 6 months out of the year. So is the answer another evaluation meeting? Yuck!

Here’s what I’ve been trying, in my on-going effort to become a boss who fully engages every person on the team: I schedule a monthly “job review” meetings individually with each person on my team. Usually I schedule these for Friday afternoons at the start of each month. By Friday afternoon, we’re all ready for a more relaxed pace to wind down from the week. At the beginning of the month we can talk about last month’s accomplishments and plan for this month’s tasks.

Together, we’ve come up with a clear description of each person’s tasks, including goals and how we know when they’ve achieved their goals. It took a few months for us to get there, starting, as we often do with a list of goals that include, “Doing work assigned to me.”

Gradually, we started to see patterns. Desiree answers the phones and helps solve people’s problems. Wendy and Sara work with new and potential new clients to make sure we meet – and exceed – their expectations. Other team members have their own areas of work. In each of these jobs there are ways we measure success – how quickly we solve people’s problems; how happy our existing clients are with service. As we realize our big goals, we can start setting little goals, too; goals that help us grow in depth and breadth as individuals and as a company.

It’s been fun for me, and I think even the staff members look forward to it. We get a few minutes of one-on-one time to focus on expectations; to give feedback and to say a simple, “thanks for your efforts.”

I remember telling someone early in my career that any time an employee failed at their work, it reflected negatively on me, too. Over the years I’ve come to accept that some people are simply not a match for the job they’re placed into, and that has no negative reflection on them or me. I’ve also learned, though, that helping guide each person to success means taking the time, on a regular basis, to give them feedback on goals and expectations.

It means, in a nutshell, taking the time to talk to each person, regularly, about their progress.

Engagement: building friends

Someone once asked me who my best friend was (husbands don’t count)…and I had to think a long time before I could answer.

I work full time running a busy, growing company. I have three daughters, each of whom would like a little of my attention. My husband requests his 60 seconds of undivided attention each week, too. While we are involved in church and other organizations, few there would qualify for “best friend” status.

I could think of only one person in answer to that question: a co-worker. I spent hours every week with her, planning projects and carrying out these plans; solving crises large and small. Often, we’d end a busy day with a quick glass of wine or, when we had accomplished something really outstanding, a celebratory margarita (or two). Of all the people in my life, she was the only one I could call a “best friend.”

If you’re like me – and many other people in our fast-paced world, our best friends are often our co-workers or colleagues. They’re the ones we spend the most hours of our day with; and the ones with whom we share our agonies (“Can you believe the boss did that – again?!”) and our ecstasies (“We totally nailed that one!”).

The researchers from Gallup found that, in fact, having a best friend at work was one indicator (#10 on the list of 12, if you’re counting) of employee engagement.

I like that concept. It seems like a very long way from the thinking of management in my early career. Those were the days when we discouraged work relationships. We said, “They’re your co-workers; not your friends. Don’t get too cozy with them.”

We worried that if we had to discipline one person, their “friends” might get upset, causing a chain reaction of resignations or bad behavior.

What we discovered along the way was that treating people fairly caused generally fair reactions. Even “friends” understood and respected management decisions that were fair, balanced and focused on improving quality care.

Today, knowing how important friendship at work is to employee engagement, good managers actively looks for ways to encourage friendships. Mentoring new hires by pairing them with experienced staff who seem to have compatible personalities is one way that works for many; secret pals and scheduled social events are others.

As you’re working on building a more engaged team, think about ways that you personally – and systematically – encourage the development of friendships among team members.

Ask your team members, “Who is your best friend?”

And hope the answer they give is someone you know.

12 Keys: Are your co-workers equally dedicated?

My daughter came home from the school the other day with steam pouring out of her ears. Being a mom, I can see these kinds of things.

I asked her what on earth was wrong, and she began to tell me, with a great deal of emotion, about a school project that was supposed to be completed by a small group of students. Each student had a part to complete, but the final grade would be made on the project as a whole, no matter how well each part was done.

Of course, there was a slacker, one student who was too busy with sports or musical tryouts or boyfriend drama (or in this case, all of the above), to complete her assigned part of the project.

The entire group got a bad grade and my daughter was fuming. Who could blame her? She worked hard on her part, focusing on detail and design as well as the assigned content. She felt great about her part of the project, but lousy about her final grade and the outcome overall. Most of all, she felt that the final project didn’t reflect on HER ability or effort.

If you’ve put your heart and soul into a project, it really sucks to have someone else come along and mess it up. If you’re working with a frail, vulnerable person and you’re passionate about providing quality care, it more than sucks if you feel your co-workers may be taking short-cuts when they come on shift to take over for you.

Maybe that’s why day shift always complains about how few rounds night shift made, or evenings complain about how much laundry day shift left them to do.

Or your caregivers seem less than fully engaged.

It takes a team to accomplish great things; it takes a team focused in the same direction, each pulling relatively equal weight, to reach your organization’s fully engaged potential.