With a clumsy nod to the Rolling Stones’ classic tune, it appears to be true: since 1987, workers have become steadily less satisfied with their work.  This is according to research results released last week by The Conference Board.  What’s more, it’s not a generational thing: satisfaction is decreasing amongst all ages groups.  While the research summary doesn’t spell out specific reasons for the decline, The Conference Board does say that the current dissatisfaction isn’t solely due to poor economic conditions.

In fact, their research digs into four factors that they call the “drivers of employee engagement”:

A. Job Design

B. Organizational Health

C. Managerial Quality

E. Extrinsic Rewards

OK, guess which one I’m honing in on?  Ding, ding, ding! You got it, “C”, Managerial Quality.  That topic interests me a lot.  Seems that it interests my readers too because the post No-Cost Ideas for Energizing Your Team is one of the most viewed posts on my blog.

In the fall of 2009 there was lot of buzz about “Is HR Dead?”.  Those of us in the HR sub-niche of helping leaders develop could ask a similar question:  “Is Leadership Development Necessary?”  The answer seems to be right in front of us, if The Conference Board numbers are any indication.  It’s not time to throw in the towel yet. 

If you are a leader. . .

If you know someone who is a leader. . .

If you’re an HR practitioner with the power to influence leadership development in your organization . . .

Please, let’s work together to find practical, low-cost ways to improve “managerial quality”. The quality of our workforce and therefore our nation’s productivity, depends on it.

I just returned from conducting on-site meetings for a new client.  The CEO of this company hired me to help his employees make the transition to a new organizational structure. We’re doing a series of input meetings, SWOT analyses and informational interviews.  Something that one of the employees said this morning is really sticking with me—“You know, the fact that Pete (the CEO)  is asking for our input is significantly increasing the probability that this new structure will succeed.”

How true. Also true—the fact that so many leaders forget (or perhaps ignore?) this simple act.  It costs nothing and potentially pays huge dividends. For years, I’ve counseled leaders that “people will support that which they helped to create”.  Yes, you’ll get your naysayers and it does take longer to build consensus. But you’ll also get some grass-root advocates from the get-go, which all the money in the world can’t buy you.

In your experience, why do leaders hesitate to ask for input?

The other day, I was having a discussion with a training manager named Sally.  Her staff designs training for her company’s field sales force. Sally works for a large organization that has a reputation for promoting from within. Here’s what we were discussing: Leaders higher up in her organization have noticed that when the sales people apply for a Sales Manager job, during the interview process they are often unaware of some of the tasks required of the role.  For example, the sales reps are often surprised at the amount of paperwork required. Or, they don’t have a clear vision of the mix of strategic versus tactical tasks that the role requires.

As we were discussing this, Sally said, “Well of course they don’t have any idea about the paperwork! Why should they?  As a manager, I view my job as shielding them from some of the more tedious tasks of supervision.  I want them focusing on their job, not worrying about what my job is.  Do you think that’s wrong of me? Am I preventing them from information that will help them if they want to get promoted?”

It’s a really great question.  So much is made these days of having leadership that’s transparent.  But how transparent? How much information is too much?  What is it that leaders should be sharing with their employees and what’s best to leave out?  This list could be very long, so let’s just focus on a few . . .

Don’t Share

Confidential or privileged information. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s tempting sometimes to share tidbits with a trusted employee.  Perhaps you need a sounding board, or you’re trying to ferret out the truth about a rumor circulating in a department.  Steer clear of your employees.  This will only blow up in your face.

Your sources.  Along the same lines, if someone gives you some scoop, do not you divulge your source. You erode the trust of the person who fed you the information. The only exception to this is if you perceive someone’s health or life to be endangered.

Maybe Share

Your frustrations as a leader. If done properly, this can help show that as a leader, you’re human too.  This is not about venting every last frustration with your team.  This is about acknowledging, that “yes, the new initiative that senior management has launched seems a bit light on details and yes, it’s going to create massive extra work.  And, yes, I’m confused and annoyed too, but we’re gonna figure this out together.” It shows that you aren’t immune to what can sometimes be a very counterproductive workplace.

The behind-the-scenes life of a leader. For those employees who’ve expressed interest in taking on a formal leadership role via supervision, it might be a good idea to let them in on some of the lesser-known details like performance review administration and the challenges (but not the specifics) of employee coaching/counseling. Leadership expert and practicing corporate Learning and Development manager Dan McCarthy has talked about this both on comments on other blogs and on his blog about how to develop leaders.  His company even goes so far as to have a “So You Want to Be a Leader?” course for prospective new supervisors.

Do Share

Company/Department business information.  It’s amazing to me how many leaders still don’t share the overall department or company goals/objectives with employees in a consistent way.  Just the other day, I had a department head ask me, “I’m thinking of doing an off-site and sharing the company’s overall goals with the employees. Do you think that would be worthwhile?” Yep, I do. Employees need to see how their daily activities feed into and advance the broader organizational goals.

Successes and celebrations.  If you want your people to work as a team, be the first person to step up and call out positive contributions.  Find ways to encourage people publicly and to sincerely thank them. Celebrate your team’s victories, both large and small.  “Celebrations” can be something as simple as a two-minute huddle with the staff to say “good job!” on achieving a recent milestone.

Clearly, for a leader to be fully effective, these lists must be longer.  As a leader, what’s on your Don’t Share, Maybe Share and Do Share list?  If you coach leaders, what do you counsel them in the way of steering clear of TMI—Too Much Information?

One of my favorite experiential activities for management training is an oldie but goodie called the “Boo/Yay” exercise.  In it, two volunteers separately try to guess a per-determined task such as walking to the front of the room and picking up a marker. The audience is instructed to give the volunteers feedback to help them decide if they are moving closer to the task— they are to yell a disapproving “Boo!” to volunteer A and an encouraging “Yay! to volunteer B.

The feedback varies in one other way as well.  For volunteer A, the audience “boos” when the person moves away from achieving the task. When moving in the direction of the correct task, the group will remain silent. Therefore, the message is:

Boo = doing it wrong, need to change course

Silence = doing it right, keep going

For volunteer B, the audience cheers “Yay!” when the person’s moving in the right direction and say nothing when moving in the wrong direction. Volunteer B’s message is:

Yay = doing it right, keep going

Silence = doing it wrong, need to change course.

 When we debrief the activity we ask the volunteers for their reactions: How did it feel to be “Booed?” How did it feel to be “Yay-ed?”  The volunteer who was booed typically says he/she felt demoralized after awhile and tended to hesitate, not wanting to continue to make “mistakes”.  The volunteer who was yay-ed says he/she appreciated the support from the yays.  The silence wasn’t too troubling, because it gave her some space to think and figure out how to proceed next.

This activity sets up a rich discussion for the pros and cons of providing encouragement or criticism. We explore the roles of a manager— to coach, provide feedback and in some cases discipline.  All of these managerial tasks are vital to developing employees’ skills to the fullest, yet the way in which they’re employed will determine the manager’s effectiveness. I encourage managers to reflect upon this question: when you interact with your employees, do they feel “Booed” or “Yay-ed”?

The act of encouraging employees to bring out their best is a nuanced one.  Some employees will view too much “Yay-ing” as insincere cheerleading.  Others have a very high need for feedback and encouragement. The type and amount of encouragement needed may also be driven by generational issues.  Much is being written about Millenial employees’ need to get constant feedback due to their hi-tech, hi-touch upbringing. 

In the end, it comes down to paying close attention to the varying needs of each individual employee.  Pay attention to if your praise was well-received.  If not, consider how you might alter it next time— praise in private rather than public?  More low-key rather than effusive? Written versus spoken praise?

However you employ your encouragement, continually return to this touchstone: are you a Boo or a Yay manager?

In preparation for reviewing the Marcus Buckingham’s soon-to-be released book Find Your Strongest Life, I decided to pull some of Buckingham’s earlier books off the shelf and give them a second look.  This review is the first of a three-part series.

Now, Discover Your Strengths

Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

The highlights:

In the follow-up to the best-selling book First, Break All the Rules, Buckingham settled into the key theme for many of his subsequent books: how to leverage one’s strengths. The premise of this book is that most organizations have the people equation backwards: they select, train, develop and measure their employees based on pre-determined, uniform standards like competencies and performance requirements. 

Buckingham and Clifton assert that organizations need to reverse the order of this equation. Rather than form-fitting people to an existing standard they need to identify employees’ strongest threads, reinforce them with practice and learning and help them carve out a role that draws on their strengths. The authors’ research leads them to believe that organizations’ inherent focus on “fixing” weaknesses (rather than building strengths) tends to create “well-rounded” employees.  That is, they are marginally good at many things, but not excellent at any.  By contrast, “strengths-based” companies have people who are “sharp”—defined by their spikes of talent.

 The book is divided into three sections:

•  Defining “what is a strength?”—which is seen as a combination of innate talent, knowledge and skills
•  Discovering one’s greatest strengths—as measured by 34 “themes” in an online StrengthsFinder profile, which is included in the purchase of the book
•  Putting one’s strengths to work—both for the individual and for managers wanting to develop their employees’ strengths

Jen’s Take:

In theory, I agree that focusing on one’s strengths make sense.  In practice, however, most companies (especially large ones) are wired for conformity. This makes the concept of creating highly personalized development plans a challenge at best and completely impossible at worst.  Plus, I think that developing competencies can help leaders get clear about the performance they need to be rewarding in their employees.  My preference is to advocate for a “both” approach rather than either/or—work within the company’s need to have structure, yet find a way to capitalize on employees’ strengths, while minimizing their weaknesses.

Best for: managers looking to find a way to energize their employees; individual contributors who are seeking direction in what their hidden talents are

Take a pass: managers who work in highly structured organizations; the book’s recommendations may be frustrating.

In my post Not Everyone Loves Putt Putt, I advised leaders to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of hosting an offsite gathering that’s “fun day” or social in nature.  In a well-intended effort to promote team cohesiveness, these outings sometimes fall short.

So what’s a leader to do if the team isn’t interested in an offsite, or the budget doesn’t permit one?  Here’s a list of no-cost ideas that will help leaders energize their teams in one of three ways:

• One-to-one connection
• Connecting team players
• Remove barriers

One-to-one connections. Do you routinely have scheduled 1-1 meetings with your direct reports?  If not, this is a way to infuse immediate energy into the team leader/employee relationship.  People like to feel heard.  What better way than to devote 30 minutes of your time listening to your employees on a consistent basis? 

The key is consistent, scheduled time.  If you maintain a regular schedule, mentor  employees to make a “Things to Discuss with Name of Boss” file. That way, they’ll be prepared with discussion topics.  Of course, some things can’t wait until the 1-1 and that’s fine.  If you have more than 15 direct reports, this might not be feasible, or the 1-1 time might be spread out, but it will still provide that continuity that’s key between a team leader and his/her direct reports.

Connecting team players. Consistent 1-1 time creates positive energy between the leader and direct reports; holding regular department meetings creates energy amongst team members.  Team leaders need to set the tone and the structure for the meetings: have an agenda and a process for tabling “off topic” remarks.  Create an accountability matrix for ideas that are generated.   

One team leader that I’ve observed is very consistent in his approach: at the beginning of each calendar year, he puts 4 quarterly team meetings on the calendar.  These are absolutely not canceled unless there is an emergency in the business. (“We’re too busy” doesn’t count as an emergency.)  In between the quarterly meetings, there are one-hour “Roundtables” conducted every other week in which staff members rotate giving 2-minute updates of their current project.

Remove barriers. A third way that a team leader can infuse energy within the team is to act as a barrier remover.  There’s nothing so demoralizing as bringing road blocks to your boss’s attention, only to have them ignored, minimized or swept under the table.  Always be on the look-out for obstacles your team members are facing.  Ask them: “what’s preventing you from getting this done?” and “what can I do to help you move this project forward?”  Be aware that sometimes the barrier is internal, not external.  If you really listen to your staff, you may find that what’s preventing someone from forward progress is an interpersonal issue with a co-worker, or lack of confidence.

In a sense, I suppose these three ideas aren’t really “no-cost” because you do need to expend effort and planning time to enact them.  Yet, I believe the dividends will pay off handsomely in the way of a more focused, energized team.

For many of us in the United States, September means “back to school”.  In the business world, that sense of starting anew often prompts team leaders to consider some sort of social off-site activity (lunch, golf, attending a cultural event) as a means to energize their team.  Off-site activities, when properly conceived and aligned to a team’s personality, can be a very useful tool for creating team cohesiveness or just plain “blowing off steam” in a fun environment. 

Regrettably, many off-site ventures fall flat because the team leader didn’t consider the implications of conducting an off-site gathering.  Furthermore, many companies have a culture that promotes the concept of teamwork. Fun-day activities may seem to be a fairly easy way to get the group together, so the team leader organizes an event.  Just as there are varied personalities that comprise a team, there are myriad activities that will excite (or create dread for team members.)  One person’s “I LOVE putt-putt golf!!!” is another person’s “Putt-putt: Are you kidding me?”

Are you (or your team leader) considering hosting an offsite social gathering for the team?  Take my Off-site Readiness Quiz to determine if this is a good use of your team’s time.

• When you float the idea of an offsite, does there seem to be a general sense of “energy” around it?
• Do employees willing volunteer to help organize the event?
• If you routinely do social off-sites, are the locations and types of activities varied to accommodate a variety of interests?
• During past events, have the majority of employees fully participated in activities?
• During past events, has group attendance been 100%?
• After past events, were people still talking about it (positively)2-3 days later?
• After past events, did you hear comments like, “That was fun! We should plan something like this for next quarter”?

If you answered “Yes” to five or more of these questions, you probably have a team that enjoys this type of activity.  If not, you may consider asking the team for input on what alternatives would be more enjoyable.  Do not mistake a team’s lack of interest for off-site “fun day” acitivities as a lack of team work.  I’ve known many highly-functioning teams that simply didn’t care for that type of diversion.

Looking for an alternative to infuse energy into your team?  See my post about No-Cost Ideas for Energizing Your Team.