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Click here for the free report "61 Questions To Transform Your Workforce" |
David
Lee
Consultant
Speaker
Author
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AR
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If
You Want To Succeed in Today's New Economy, Learn
How To Optimize Employee Emotions |
| By
David Lee |
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| Reprinted
from HR Today |
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| Emotions
play an important role in an organization’s
ability - or inability - to compete successfully
in the New Economy. This is because employee
emotions affect the primary sources of
competitive advantage: |
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Intellectual Capital |
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Customer Service |
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Organizational Responsiveness |
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Productivity |
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Employee Attraction and Retention |
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Thus, the more skilled an organization’s
management team is at creating a work environment
where employees experience positive emotions,
the more successful that organization will
be.
Knowledge about how to do this has been around
for years. The principles and practices involved
in bringing out the best in employees are neither
arcane nor rocket science. They do take work
and patience, though, which is probably why
only a small percentage of organizations seem
to employee them. Organizations that do the
hard work, though, have a workforce that enables
them to compete successfully in the marketplace.
Before we cover some of these basic practices,
we need to recognize the first step that makes
any of this possible. That essential first
step is management having a clear understanding
of the connection between emotions and competitive
advantage. Without a clear and compelling "why," no
manager will allocate time for learning and
implementing the "how."
Two final comments before getting to the list.
First, the list is not meant to be exhaustive,
but rather a sample of what world class organizations
do, to optimize employee emotional states.
Second, as mentioned previously, these practices
are not rocket science. With that in mind,
as you read each item on the list, the key
question to ask is not "Do I know this?" The
key question to ask is "Are we doing this?"
Pay the Price of Management Development,
Rather Than the Price of Neglecting Management
Development
Make no mistake about it, your organization
pays for one or the other. They either pay
the price of cultivating managers’ supervisory
and leadership skills, or they pay the price
of having managers who don’t know how
to deal with people. The impact of an ineffective
or abusive supervisor is huge, because in many
ways, a supervisor is the organization to those
he or she supervises. The way supervisors treat
employees sets the tone for how employees feel
about their work and their employer.
Organizations that cultivate their management
team use an array of tools and strategies,
including management style assessments, management
training, executive coaching, and 360 surveys.
To make any of this work also requires a clear
message from the top that a manager’s
value to the organization is dependent upon
his or her ability to bring out the best in
the people he or she supervises.
Show Respect By Asking Employees For
Their Feedback
When management doesn’t ask employees
for feedback, they are in essence saying, "We
don’t care what you think about
how we treat you, and besides, we know
what’s best for you anyway." In
contrast, when management asks employees
for feedback about their management style
and practices, they communicate respect
and concern. In such an atmosphere, employees
are more likely to feel committed to
their work and the company.
Asking for feedback isn’t just
about communicating respect and concern,
though. It’s also about finding
out what’s working, and what isn’t.
Too often, we assume we know, when we
don’t. In one study, conducted
by Kepner Tregoe, less than 1/3 of employees
surveyed felt their manager knew what
motivated them. Over 1⁄2 of the
managers surveyed agreed.
Just as smart companies actively and
continuously solicit feedback from their
customers to find out how well they are
meeting their needs, smart companies
actively and continuously solicit this
kind of feedback from their internal
customers - their employees.
Don’t Force Employees To Check
Their Brains at the Door
Few things kill the spirit more quickly
than mind-numbing work. Give employees
the opportunity to think on the job.
Encourage them to improve the work processes
they’re involved in. Not only does
it make sense - people who do the work
usually have the best ideas about how
to do it better - it makes work more
enjoyable and interesting.
In the customer service field, an excellent
- and unfortunately underutilized - way
to engage employees’ minds, is
to turn them into "customer service
detectives." Create processes and
rewards that encourage them to find out
what customers want and then deliver
this critical information to key decision-makers.
Give Employees As Much Control As Possible
Over Their Work
This strategy is related to the former
one. The more control and autonomy employees
have over their work, the more they’re
able to use their minds. The issue of
control goes far beyond the intellectual
realm, though. Decades of research shows
that when people feel they don’t
have control, their intellectual functioning,
interpersonal functioning, and behavior
deteriorate.
Feeling out of control creates tremendous
stress and, if chronic, leads to the
condition called Learned Helplessness,
which in turn leads to depression. When
employees have a say in their work, and
therefore feel in control, they become
more energized, enthusiastic, and productive.
(Important Note - the drive for control
is so powerful that if employees aren’t
given opportunities for positive control,
they will find ways of exerting negative
control, such as calling in sick, engaging
in work slow downs, illegitimately using
Short Term Disability, etc.).
Give Employees Who Serve The Customer,
the Power to Please the Customer
When organizations create policies and
practices that hamstring the frontline
service professional’s ability
to please the customer, they are virtually
guaranteeing a demoralized, cynical workforce.
Conversely, if frontline customer service
professionals have the power to please
the customer, the predominant tone of
their interactions is one of appreciation
and delighted surprise. This can’t
help but create a sense of pride and
well-being - the emotional foundation
of world class customer service.
Notice When Employees Do Things Right
Many managers unwittingly increase their
own frustration, while creating a demoralized
workforce, by always focusing on employee
mistakes. Unfortunately, it’s human
nature to notice what’s wrong more
easily than what’s right. Since
we are all affected by how we are perceived,
and since "what gets noticed, gets
repeated," giving in to this natural
tendency creates a downward spiral of
increasing undesirable behaviors and
decreasing morale. To prevent this from
happening, provide managers with training
and coaching about how to become a more
consistent "good finder."
Conclusion
By engaging in these management practices,
your organization can create an organizational
climate that optimizes employee emotions.
By helping your management team optimize
employee emotions, you will be helping
your organization make a significant
impact on the primary sources of competitive
advantage in today’s marketplace. |
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About the Author: David Lee is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance. He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, as well as dozens of articles on employee and organizational performance that have been published in trade journals and books in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. For information on his programs and service, click here.
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