HR May Talk About It But Leaders EARN It

Think back to the comment I referenced a few times previously about this so-called “fuzzy initiative driven by someone in human resources that never yields tangible results”... The fellow who made that comment went on to explain that this was because “most CEOs continue to sit on the sidelines and let HR wack away at the problem.” I believe we’ve covered enough firm data to eliminate the question of whether or not tangible results ARE achievable by working to intentionally improve employee engagement… Quite frankly, I believe that’s the ONLY way to address this particular profitability killer; The Cost of Disengaged Employees…

Now I want you to think back to the list I challenged you to make detailing the specific things the best leader you’ve ever worked with did to earn that extra discretionary effort from you… Before I start working through a list of my own here, I need to ask you one more thing as it relates to your list: were those things that inspired you, motivated you, and earned your active engagement done solely by someone in the human resources department? In case you’re wondering, this is indeed one of those rhetorical questions. I would be absolutely stunned if anyone could answer this affirmatively, including folks who actually work in human resources! Having been that guy in human resources, I know all too well the need for someone higher up the food chain to be casting the vision and earning engagement. When I no longer had that, after nearly two decades with the same organization, the work I was doing lost that majority of its purpose and I chose to move on…

All that said, if that fellow I traded comments with on LinkedIn had only ever seen HR folks deal with anything related to engagement, I can understand why he had that perspective. But it absolutely should not be that way! In fact, here’s what I found in an article from Gallup called Who’s Responsible for Employee Engagement backing my opinion:

“Engagement isn't just an "HR thing." Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. There are no quick fixes when it comes to human relationships. It is essential that managers effectively interact with and develop each team member over time.”

Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not bashing the human resources profession (this time). They have a very distinct and critical role. In many cases, they’re the ones who provide the tools to the supervisors, managers, and executives they work with so they can “effectively interact with and develop each team member over time,” but they’re rarely going to be the one doing it with every individual team member on a routine basis.

Before we move on to listing and detailing the specific steps you, or any leader on your team for that matter, can take earn the kind of engagement that leads to that the “57% improvement in discretionary effort” and “20% individual performance improvement,” I believe it’s important to keep one thing in mind: it’s rarely a matter of a manager not wanting better performance or simply not being willing to develop their team members! It’s nearly always because they just don’t know who to go about it. As the Gallup article said, “There are no quick fixes when it comes to human relationships” and so many supervisors, managers, and executives today have worked their way through the ranks based on a completely different expertise. And the tools that got them there aren’t often the ones they need most to interact effectively with their teams!

Next, we’ll review a list of some simple things we need to do, then we’ll wrap up our look at this particular profitability killer by laying out the practical steps we can take to implement and sustain each of those things…