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Leaders face a near perfect storm today. Making sales and profit goals are tougher in the "new normal', employee disengagement is near epic levels and gallup research cites nearly one in three payroll dollars are lost because of disengagement. The savvy leader begins to sort and understand what is going on in the larger economy and their own organization. One of the biggest challenges is an epic rush of resumes. Recent survey data from the Wall Street Journal, November 2009 cited nearly 87% of employees are distracted by thoughts, daydreams or plans to leave the organization. The 87% looks like this...60% actively seeking other employment, 21% networking, and 6% updating resumes. Bottomline, organizations may be about to experience a massive round of "free agency employees." The challenge for leaders is to reach out and engage employees... inspiring a new age of honesty and engagement. And reach out to actively disengaged employees. Often disengaged employees are fearful and they no longer trust...trust has evaporated. The loss of trust is serious and there is a cause and effect. The organization may not have met their needs. Here are 3 tips to purge the wrong attitudes for excuses, whining and negativity. 1. "It's the economy", words of the employee blaming the economy. Every organization faces a tough economy. An employee who substitutes excuses for results is not a team player. The response: Discuss expectations of no tolerance for excuses. When mistakes happen, as they certainly will, the correct response is a simple "I'm sorry" and the employees adjustments if any to be sure mistakes are minimized. 2. "If only we had...." The whiner's theme. It's ok to find gaps and soft spots in the organization. But it serves no one to put energies into whining without smart solutions. The response: Ask that the whining to stop. Reach out and ask what could be better, what is missing? Ask employees for their personal commitment to help. 3. "Negative Nancy' this is the naysayer, the one who loves to rain on everyone's parade. The Response: When Negative Nancy says we "can't"...respond... "I understand why we haven't...tell us how we can". We've tackled big issues in virtually every phase of running a business. We understand how tough it is to create clarity out of chaos, and hope from despair. But, it can be done. Begin by getting clear what is truly bugging the leader. Sales, profits, roa, roi, are only symptoms. Look beyond that. What do you feel when you think of what's missing in the focus, energy, and joy of your employees. Create a list of 20,then sort, look for patterns, and whittle the list down to 10...then work harder and pare it down to three. Voila, you've clarified what are probably the 3 most important blockers in your organization. You've just begun. Creating rainmakers from disengaged employees is possible. We may not be a fit...but as your pain and costs grow from the disengagment, know there are elegant solutions.
Mike Krutza and Jodi Wiff, authors
http://lighthouse-leadership.com By the way, do you want to learn more about creating a powerful workplace culture? If so, download our brand new free ebook Three Elegant Strategies for Your Organizations Survival Elegant Courage
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