Employees want to know where they stand. It is the job of leaders to provide feedback and create a culture where in the moment feedback is modeled and encouraged.
I am currently working with an executive coaching client who wants to improve his emotional intelligence. As part of the process we are incorporating multi-rater 360 degree feedback. In my interviews with raters, it is clear that some of the raters view my client as entitled, sometimes disrespectful and aways seeing her priorities as more important than that of others.
My client has blind spots related to these behaviors. She is open to feedback to get better. However, her co-workers are not comfortable having a conversation with my client about the behaviors they observe. The boss of my client likes to "leave well enough alone" and models not having difficult conversations unless absolutely necessary. The culture reflects this mind-set.
Are you comfortable giving and receiving feedback?
The following four elements have been proven to be effective in creating employee loyalty: praise and recognition, a sense of contribution to the company, learning and development, and having a best friend at work.
1. Praise and recognition: It has been said that no news is good news, but for managers interested in keeping the best workers, this is not true. For workers, not getting any feedback is tantamount to being ignored: it leads to complacency. Workplaces that ignore performance will destroy the very human spirit that makes the true difference in quality output and service delivery.
Positive recognition is often thought of as coming strictly from supervisors or managers, but studies have found that employees also value praise and recognition from peers. Co-workers know the particulars of a job and when they give good feedback it can be more meaningful.
What can a manager do to help foster this? Model the appropriate way to give frequent praise and recognition. Working with a coach will help develop appropriate and effective feedback skills.
2. A sense of contribution to the company: Excellence only happens when people have a deeply felt sense of purpose in their lives. Human beings want to know they make a difference. Organizations need to let employees know how their job and their performance is important to the overall success of the company. There must be an alignment of the worker’s personal reasons for being there and the purpose of the job. It is more exciting to share a mission rather than to simply accomplish a task.
What can a manager do to increase this sense of meaning? Involve the workers in other aspects of the company. Take them to meetings, let them know about what’s going on in the company in other departments and teams.
3. Learning and development: It is important to offer trainings and learning opportunities. Effective organizations are now hiring coaches to help workers develop their strengths and to become more of who they are.
Working with a coach involves encouraging them to know themselves. As they come to better understand who they are, they can see opportunities for growth in the company, utilizing their strengths and talents. As they move forward in their self-knowledge, they can look for places within the company where their talents are a good fit.
4. Having a best friend at work: This is a key element in why people choose to stay at a job, even in the face of other dissatisfactions. In the best workplaces, managers recognize that employees want to forge quality relationships with their co-workers and that company loyalty can be built from such relationships. Developing trusting relationships with one’s coworkers provides a significant emotional compensation for employees. While organizations pay close attention to the loyalty workers may feel toward the company, the best employers recognize that loyalty also exists among workers to each other. Great managers allow time and opportunity for these relationships to flourish.
Managers know that they need to attract and retain talented people in order to succeed in the competitive workplace. And they also have to find ways to get workers to improve performance. People usually don’t think of themselves as performers, but as individuals with certain strengths and talents. Workers must know that the manager cares about them on a human level before they are going to be motivated to make extra efforts.
There is no one-size-fits all retention formula. Here are some of the ingredients:
1. Honest communications in all directions
2. Supervisors who invite workers into all facets of work and help them to see the big picture, that is, the
corporate value of their contributions
3. Workplaces that encourage experimentation and learning.
There is a great need to engage and enable the hearts, minds, and yes, even the soul of people at work. This engagement is far more important than bonuses, perks and even chair massages. It is primordial to retaining talented people.
Comments