The life blood for any business is innovation.
Leadership’s ability to inspire innovation to such a pitch that it radiates through the very heart-beat of an organisation will determine which businesses within our heavily over-subscribed LifeSciences industry will survive and which will be asset-stripped by stronger competitors or simply disappear.
In fact, if you probe any of today’s widely heralded ‘success stories’ both inside and outside our industry sector it is the unique symbiosis between innovation and employee engagement that shines as brightly as the results themselves.
Getting this formula right will determine whether an organisation thrives or dies.
Alarmingly, the signs are not encouraging.
"...an engaged workforce will be a necessity in order to innovate, truly transform and ultimately compete at the highest levels." Haygroup
Data published by HayGroup in 2013 highlight a dramatic double-digit decline in employees’ ratings in respect of key areas that impact innovation, such as:
• the company’s effort to get the ideas and opinion of employees (-19)
• whether the company is perceived to be effectively managed and well-run (-17)
• employees trust and confidence in managers (-11) and
• the extent to which employees receive clear and regular feedback (-12).
We don't need Big Data to get the Big Message.
To stand any chance of inspiring innovation, it is vital for Leaders in this industry to quite simply transform how they inspire and engage the people that they lead.
And then get out of the way.
‘Engaged workers stand apart from their not-engaged and actively disengaged counterparts because of the discretionary effort they consistently bring to their roles. These employees willingly go the extra mile, work with passion, and feel a profound connection to their company. They are the people who will drive innovation and move your business forward.' Gallup Business Journal (Jan 2014)
Innovation flourishes only when Leaders draw on the trust that underpins effective employee engagement and genuinely empower their talented people to infuse the organisation with innovative thinking and creative solutions to the challenges they encounter.
Employee engagement: a simple formula
If you are looking for the ‘Secret Bullet’ to trigger effective employee engagement then I’m sorry, we don’t have it. You know just as well as we do that the formula is very simple: People respond to people. Employees respond to Leaders who they trust, respect and believe in, and (crucially) who believe in and value them.
The ‘new class’ of Leader today is the talented and committed professional who knows this and genuinely leads from the Heart as well as the Head. He or she is the person who instinctively reaches beyond the relentless turmoil of overwhelming workloads to recognise and appreciate the emotional toil being invested by each member of their team. They ‘engage’ at an emotional level as well as a rational one, and actively use their intuitive skills to stay closely connected to every member of their team.
So, why you should dump the 'Employee Survey'?
Throughout the 15 years that I have worked in this industry I have seen multiple iterations of the ubiquitous ‘employee survey’ including the latest versions integrating new technologies that facilitate inclusion of qualitative ‘free text’ alongside the traditional quantitative measures.
However, my own perceptions are that the value of employee surveys are utterly discredited now by the people they are designed to reach and, all too often, are being used as a substitute for effective Leadership. These surveys can be a blunt instrument that does little to bring insight to the real issues influencing performance and may even become deeply divisive if people do not see change
What can the homogenised findings of these online tools reveal that Leaders do not already know?
If Leaders are meaningfully engaged with their people, they should already have their finger on the pulse of the key issues shouldn’t they?
They will routinely be having the open and honest conversations about the issues that really matter to their people. Deep insight into the subtle factors influencing attitudes and driving performance outcomes will prompt action that deliver solutions – pragmatic, needs-focused action at a micro level that collectively create a powerful ground-swell of change across an entire organisation.
If Leaders are leading well, what possible added value can a survey posing prescriptive questions conceivably bring? The answer, in my experience, is that they can’t but in the absence of really effective, empowering Leadership, the scope to pour over the key findings from a survey gives everyone the sense that something is being done to promote employee engagement …just not the right thing.
The obvious place to start for a 'Quick Win': active conversations
These survey tools do, for sure, have a place. There is clearly value in the benchmarking data that they create.
However, if organisations areserious about inspiring innovation, then maybe an immediate ‘Quick Win’ to improve the employee engagement that is so vital to achieving this involves tearing up next year’s Employee Survey and focusing on promoting the need for Leadership to have actual conversations instead.
Conversations that happen routinely not just once a year. Conversations infused with trust that help people to share what they really think, feel listened to and give their buy-in to being part of the solutions.
Conversations that will transform the success of organisations just like yours.
Next steps...
Challenge yourself to assess how engaged you are
Gallup suggest that all employees – irrespective of rank – fall into one of three categories: engaged (the rare), not engaged (the passive majority), the actively disengaged (the toxic minority). onest with yourself. Which category are you in and why? What is influencing how you feel, how much discretionary effort do you put in and how do you use your engagement to inspire others?
Write down 3 simple Quick Wins that you could do to raise your own level of engagement.
Praise the little things
Most Leaders are really good at acknowledged and celebrating an individual or team’s success but how good are you at recognising the little things? Look out for the small, incremental value-adds that reflect the discretionary effort that a person has put in, and tell them that you’ve seen it. Go viral with it! Everyone loves to shine….Probe what ‘courage’ actually means for you. How do you define it? What difference does it make in how authentic you are to what matters to you and others?
Celebrate set backs
Setbacks create unique opportunities for you as a Leader to infuse people with a confidence they may lack in the moment and praise their achievement in finding solutions. Think about your own attitude to setbacks. Do you perceive them as a ‘problem’ or an ‘opportunity to shine’?
Read 'Thanks for the Feedback' by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
This book explores ‘The science and art of receiving feedback well’. This book takes an in-depth look at how you can recognise your blind spots and prevent your emotions from shunting a challenging chat sideways.
Register an interest in joining our next eMasterclass 'Engaging an empowered team'
In this second in our series of eMasterclasses, we explore how Leaders can engage their employees more effectively within the context of matrix working and empowerment.
For more information on this series of eMasterclasses and to find out how you can participate, please click here
Thurs Dec 11th, 2014
1300 GMT : 0800 EST
How do you engage an empowered team?
Please note: This complimentary eMasterclass is a peer forum for Senior LifeSciences Leaders only and does, therefore, have restrictions associated with it. In the event that this is not the right forum for you, there are many other ways in which we can help you to be a more effective Leader. So, please do get in touch with us and we will explore alternative options with you that may serve you better.
