Speaker 1: Hey, this is Christal Hacking your leadership. On today's discussion
Speaker 1: on employee engagement. I want to go over a process
Speaker 1: that has been around for a few years. It's from
Speaker 1: a UK based company called Engage for Success, and this
Speaker 1: process is called the four Enablers. These are things that
Speaker 1: organizations can do to kind of level set and check
Speaker 1: as to whether or not the engagement in their organization
Speaker 1: is low, and if it is low, what they can
Speaker 1: do to fix it. The four Enablers from Engaged for Success.
Speaker 1: I think the reason I like them is because they
Speaker 1: don't depend on each other. They are individualized, but they
Speaker 1: are all required at the same time, and so you
Speaker 1: don't have to not focus on one area because another
Speaker 1: is lacking. These are all things that kind of have
Speaker 1: to be done at the same time, and I think
Speaker 1: it'd be very hard for me to find an organization
Speaker 1: who had these four things and had low employee engagement,
Speaker 1: and so I think it's really all encompassing. If you
Speaker 1: look at them, I'll kind of go list them off
Speaker 1: real quickly we can discuss them. The first is a
Speaker 1: strategic narrative, so there's a visible, empowering leadership who provides
Speaker 1: a strong strategic narrative about the organization, where it's come from,
Speaker 1: where it's going. There's engaging managers, people who focus on
Speaker 1: their people and give them scope, treat their people as individuals,
Speaker 1: coach them and stretch them. There's employee voice, so throughout
Speaker 1: the organization, the employees feel like they can contribute, they
Speaker 1: can give feedback. They are asked about their opinion on
Speaker 1: how the organization functions, and their their ideas and expertise
Speaker 1: is used in kind of creating strategy and moving forward.
Speaker 1: And then organizational integrity. Do the values kind of listed
Speaker 1: in the employee handbook or up on the wall, do
Speaker 1: the actions exhibited by the organization, by the leaders do
Speaker 1: they match what those words are or is there a
Speaker 1: disconnect between those two? And again, if organizations have all
Speaker 1: four of those, it'd be very difficult to find a
Speaker 1: lack of engagement. In general, you'll always have individ people
Speaker 1: who just don't like the organization, but but in general
Speaker 1: you'll have high engagement if you have these things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think as you were reading through them, my
Speaker 2: first thought was that's a really high bar. Yeah, to
Speaker 2: have these come to life, you know, at all times.
Speaker 2: And I think I think that they're great you know
Speaker 2: that kind of they're great filters though, and they're great
Speaker 2: questions to ask because really, like if that's what you're
Speaker 2: striving towards, to your point, like it will never be
Speaker 2: perfect and you can never I don't think you can
Speaker 2: ever say check this box one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 2: I think that there have been some organizations that collectively
Speaker 2: have been very close and have had done a lot
Speaker 2: of different and innovative things to like make these things
Speaker 2: happen that but most would say are kind of outside
Speaker 2: of the box or a different approach, you know, or
Speaker 2: it's kind of like the feeling of like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you know, you're you're giving your people too much power
Speaker 2: to make decisions and that could cost you, you know,
Speaker 2: on the bottom line. But also at the same time,
Speaker 2: this empowers people and gives them a reason to want
Speaker 2: to enjoy the decisions that they make in the job
Speaker 2: that they have. So like I just think of like
Speaker 2: immediately really high bars, but the right things and a
Speaker 2: good I think, a good you know framework to figure
Speaker 2: out where are you organizationally, if you were to make
Speaker 2: this into like a square, where would you lean more
Speaker 2: one way or the other, and how would you go
Speaker 2: about addressing these things as you kind of talk through them.
Speaker 2: I think as a as a local leader, many of
Speaker 2: these things as you talked about them as an organization,
Speaker 2: this is a really high bar as a local leader
Speaker 2: of people. I think you could scale this down and
Speaker 2: create spaces to bring this to life for your teams.
Speaker 2: You could kind of make create a like a you know,
Speaker 2: a microcosm of the larger by being really intentional with
Speaker 2: some of these things. But I do, on the surface
Speaker 2: think it's like really really good questions and really cut
Speaker 2: right to the heart of like is this happening in
Speaker 2: your org or on your team or not?
Speaker 1: Right, So, the first thing I said, you kind of
Speaker 1: touched on it a little bit is that is that
Speaker 1: this isn't something you arrive at. It's something that you
Speaker 1: are constantly striving for and constantly working at. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you there's a difference between a person
Speaker 1: who wants to run a marathon and a person who
Speaker 1: is a runner, right, Like, they're two different things. A
Speaker 1: person you can train and go and run a marathon
Speaker 1: and then be done with it, and then you know
Speaker 1: a month later, you you know, don't want to get
Speaker 1: off the couch and run Again, if you're a runner,
Speaker 1: you're constantly doing these things, whether or not you are
Speaker 1: have accomplished it or not. And so because the team's
Speaker 1: kind of ebb and flow, because you'll have people who
Speaker 1: will come and go from teams, people who promote, people
Speaker 1: who leave the organization, the work that is needed on
Speaker 1: these elements are always needed. And even if a team
Speaker 1: doesn't change for a while, even if it's the same
Speaker 1: people for you know, a period of several years, it
Speaker 1: still requires work because people will go through different things
Speaker 1: in their own lives that will make them more or
Speaker 1: less capable of doing these things. And constantly thinking about
Speaker 1: whether or not they exist is important because if you
Speaker 1: don't think about them for too long, you will find
Speaker 1: that they will slowly go away and you won't realize
Speaker 1: that they've they've been lost until it's until once you
Speaker 1: get to that point, it will take a lot more
Speaker 1: work to get them back than it just takes to
Speaker 1: maintain them if you are in the rhythm of maintaining them.
Speaker 1: And I completely agree with you that there are things
Speaker 1: that can be done on the local level, because really,
Speaker 1: if you think about where leadership happens, it's in the
Speaker 1: one on one interaction between two people regardless of what
Speaker 1: happens at the kind of broader company level. So I
Speaker 1: want to go over how individual leaders can make this
Speaker 1: happen regardless of what happens above them. But first I
Speaker 1: want to get up toward to for one of our sponsors,
Speaker 1: when it comes to employee voice, ask your people what
Speaker 1: their thoughts are about the last thing that you said,
Speaker 1: or the last meeting that you held, or the last
Speaker 1: time that they that you had to give them feedback,
Speaker 1: and you know, you want to know how if you
Speaker 1: did that the correct way. You know, the individual conversations
Speaker 1: you have with your people where you genuinely want to
Speaker 1: know their opinion on you as a leader or on
Speaker 1: what the way forward is for a strategy that you're developing.
Speaker 1: Those are the things that will raise the perception that
Speaker 1: employees have a voice in the organization, especially if you
Speaker 1: are using their their information as you go forward, you
Speaker 1: give them credit for it and kind of hype them
Speaker 1: up and put them on pedestals for you know, kind
Speaker 1: of for the contribution they're making. Engaging managers, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're engaging with your team individually, one on one, Uh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter whether or not You're a leader,
Speaker 1: and I want to say it doesn't matter. I keep
Speaker 1: saying that when it comes to organizational integrity, the say
Speaker 1: do gap you know, do as I say, not as
Speaker 1: I do. That only happens in the one on one
Speaker 1: interaction between a person and their leader. You know, if
Speaker 1: a if an organization is saying one thing, the the
Speaker 1: doing another thing is not done by the organization. It's
Speaker 1: done by you. It's done by the people who work
Speaker 1: for the organization. And the only thing you can control
Speaker 1: are the actions that you do. And so if you
Speaker 1: say something to your people, whatever it is that you say,
Speaker 1: whatever you proclaim are your values or what you stand for,
Speaker 1: or how you hold people accountable, how you promote people,
Speaker 1: what the expectations are, if you are holding yourself to
Speaker 1: those same expectations, and you're holding your people to those
Speaker 1: expectations equally and fairly across the board, not you know,
Speaker 1: playing favorites or holding them to different standards. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the reflection of organizational integrity. And if your people
Speaker 1: see that from you, they will feel that and they
Speaker 1: will be highly engaged, even if you don't necessarily feel
Speaker 1: it from the people above you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's such a great call out and
Speaker 2: kind of break down because I think again, it's like
Speaker 2: controlling what you can control, and when you are a
Speaker 2: leader of people, there's a lot of things that you
Speaker 2: can do to bring you know, these types of filters
Speaker 2: to life and bring the values of an organization to life.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been very much subscribed to the idea
Speaker 2: of kind of you know, the layers of two above you.
Speaker 2: So like basically, you know, ninety five percent of your
Speaker 2: experience at work is going to be impacted by your
Speaker 2: boss and your and your boss's boss. Like, those two
Speaker 2: layers of leadership are really where most of what you
Speaker 2: experience you get from. So if they're they're doing the
Speaker 2: things that you're talking about, if there's dialogue around you know,
Speaker 2: how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, How am I involved here?
Speaker 2: If I understand, you know, organizationally, what the big picture
Speaker 2: is and where we're going, and how I fit into that.
Speaker 2: Like if these things are happening in our conversation and dialogue,
Speaker 2: and and then as my direct leader, you're creating these
Speaker 2: spaces for me, I feel really good about these things,
Speaker 2: and I feel that like this, this is exactly how
Speaker 2: kind of the company is showing up for me because again,
Speaker 2: my experience is my direct leader and then their leader.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's such an important responsibility, regardless
Speaker 2: of the industry that you're in or the organization that
Speaker 2: you work for. I think some some companies have really
Speaker 2: really strong and clear narratives. Some companies you know, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is a thing that we do. But but how
Speaker 2: I feel about, you know, my work every day and
Speaker 2: my involvement of that, it has so much more to
Speaker 2: do with that leader that I have. Because in both
Speaker 2: cases of companies that have really clear, strong narratives or
Speaker 2: companies that don't, that direct leader is going to either
Speaker 2: bring that to life or create that for me. And
Speaker 2: so like that's why it's so important to consider these
Speaker 2: types of things, to reflect on these types of things,
Speaker 2: to write down, you know, these things, and then say,
Speaker 2: how am I doing this for my people or my
Speaker 2: teams If I'm looking to create the best possible kind
Speaker 2: of working community slash culture that I possibly can as
Speaker 2: a leader.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I completely agree with that. I think that there's
Speaker 1: this this this element of in some people's minds that oh,
Speaker 1: this isn't happening at the top, so it has to
Speaker 1: start there. And you know, when it comes to leadership
Speaker 1: as a whole, it's very difficult to make broad sweeping
Speaker 1: changes to an entire organization if the if the leaders
Speaker 1: at the top are not on board clearly, but whether
Speaker 1: or not your people feel engaged and bring their best
Speaker 1: has far less to do with that and far more
Speaker 1: to do with how you interact and engage with them
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. And so when it comes to,
Speaker 1: you know, a strategic narrative that comes from the top,
Speaker 1: you know, the further away from the execution you go,
Speaker 1: the more strategic and less tactical it is. It's less
Speaker 1: about what you have to do and more about here's
Speaker 1: where we're going. What we have to do to get
Speaker 1: there is really decided by the different levels along the
Speaker 1: way down to who actually has to execute it. And
Speaker 1: so what your people feel from you and from the
Speaker 1: organization when it comes to their expectation of executing a
Speaker 1: strategy is largely going to be about how you hold
Speaker 1: them accountable to the actions that you have told them
Speaker 1: you expect, which comes from your boss talking to you.
Speaker 1: But if we talk about it through the context of
Speaker 1: our culture acronym L for lend Air support. You know,
Speaker 1: what your people here, they should hear from you directly,
Speaker 1: and what you give to them should not be a
Speaker 1: should not reflect your lack of ability to should not
Speaker 1: reflect your lack of engagement with your own leader. It
Speaker 1: should reflect a desire to keep them engaged even in
Speaker 1: the absence of your engagement with your own leader. And
Speaker 1: so again, all of this happens between you and your people.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons I like this particular
Speaker 1: way of looking at employee engagement because it really has
Speaker 1: kind of an extreme ownership element to it that leaders
Speaker 1: can look at and kind of take hold of this
Speaker 1: on their own, as opposed to, you know, something they
Speaker 1: have to depend on others to make happen. Thank you
Speaker 1: all for joining us in this episode. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next Thursday for our next discussion on raising employee engagement.
Speaker 1: You have a great day.