Bravery – The Secret to Better Engagement

A strategic priority has three important goals in mind: attracting and retaining top talent, creating a great culture with high levels of morale, and growing a profitable and sustainable business.?

Let’s explore the importance of making employee engagement a strategic priority:

• The cost of employee turnover is high. Bottom-line costs of losing those in technical positions is between 100% and 150% of their salary and up to 213% for those in C-level positions (PeopleKeep). Aspects such as lower morale and decreased productivity are more difficult to calculate.
• Only 21% percent of employees are engaged at work according to the 2022 Gallup employee engagement survey, meaning that workplace morale is low for the vast majority of employees.
• Gallup’s 2022 findings show that business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit than those with miserable workers, meaning that employee engagement increases workplace productivity.?

The Truth Heals and Hurts

We all know that not speaking about issues doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. In fact, you can be guaranteed that your team is definitely talking about them. Effective engagement requires transparency and an environment that allows for people to openly share their views and their opinions. ?

This is where bravery comes in. You must be brave enough to face the truth – the good and the bad – which can be difficult to do and is often easier to avoid. I would take this a step further and argue that real bravery doesn’t come from hearing the feedback; it comes from being prepared to being open to it in the first place and being willing to do something about it in the second.?

Provide the Platform Effectively

The majority of staff surveys fail. Why? It boils down to an issue of a lack of trust which stems from a few sources:

• Your team has no understanding of why surveys are being conducted.
• Team members have been disappointed in the past because nothing happened when surveys were done.
• The team doesn’t trust the confidentiality of the process.

Let me unpack each of these individually and apply some solutions.

Provide Reasons

Problem: “We have no idea why we are doing this.”

How much time did you spend in your last board or management meeting talking about culture and engagement – is it even an agenda item? Culture and engagement need to be part of your strategy rather than simply being aspects that enable it.

Culture is an indicator of potential. A lack of performance (financial or otherwise) has less to do with strategy and operating models, and everything to do with how well culture is aligned to both your strategic intent and how things get done through your processes, systems and procedures.

There is a second part to this: ownership. If you treat a survey merely as a tick-box exercise and pass it onto HR (because, you know, they deal with “people” stuff) then you really are missing the point.

Solution: Own it as the leader

To start, make culture part of your strategy and ensure that the entire board and the management team own it as well. Make culture an agenda point in board and management meetings, and consider adding “culture KPIs” to performance reviews (perhaps a subject for another day).

Next, communication is critical. Inform people why you are running the survey, and be honest about what your intentions are, what you are hoping to achieve and most importantly, what you plan to do with the feedback.

Lastly, invite participation – don’t force it.

Provide Confidence

Problem: “Nothing happened the last time we did this.”

Surveys create expectations on both sides. From a leadership point of view, there is an expectation that people will participate, and provide honest and open feedback. From a team point of view, the expectation is that there will be open and transparent feedback, and that at least some of the issues raised will be addressed.

Whilst expectations (on both sides) may not always be entirely realistic, there is almost always enough to work with to make a meaningful impact. Contributing factors here are frequency and timing. Doing an annual survey is simply not enough – I can barely remember what happened last week, never mind last year! Issues that are a year old are either festering wounds by now or people have simply moved on and told themselves “It’s no use raising that again”.

In an age where instant gratification is the name of the game, the issue of timing is two-fold: The survey should not take too long to complete (an easy trap to fall into when you’re doing the exercise annually only) and the feedback loop needs to be equally “quick” so that people can see the actual results of what has been said.

Solution: Feedback and action are crucial

Part of your initial communication should outline what people can expect with regards to getting feedback. Share the results of the survey (the good, the bad and the ugly) with the vital element of context – not context in the form of “defend, deny and justify”, but context in terms of good results analysis and what the results mean for the business, strategy and team. Once the feedback loop is complete, the most pertinent issues need to be prioritised, agreed and actioned.?

Frequently measuring engagement is key to moving the needle. By creating and then monitoring a dashboard, not only is the evidence there for all to see for themselves, but it also provides a proactive platform from which to address issues as they arise. A survey that takes 10 minutes to complete on a quarterly basis is way more effective than an annual one that takes twice or thrice as long.

Provide Peace of Mind

Problem: “We don’t trust the confidentiality of this.”

For whatever reason, lack of trust is sometimes the greatest barrier to overcome. Reluctance to participate often comes from a sense of fear of making “career-limiting statements”. I would argue that this has less to do with trust and everything to do with apathy. After all, it is extremely rare (not to mention a contravention of labour law) to fire a team member for having an honest and constructive point of view about their work environment. The lack of trust in the confidentiality is actually just “code” and an easy way out of not saying “We don’t know why” or “Nothing will happen”.?

Solution: Get an external perspective

Getting an external perspective can be invaluable for a number of reasons:

• There is no agenda other than collecting information and points of view, which means that it can be objective.
• An external person won’t be spending their time trying to identify who is right or wrong, or whether what is being said is true or false, valid or invalid – they are merely looking for commonly-held points of view and realities.

Yes, self-diagnosis is an option (just ask Dr Google), but how does a prognosis ranging from “You’ve got a runny nose” to “You’ve got a terminal disease” (and everything in between) actually help you??

Lastly, accept the feedback for what it is – it is not a personal attack on your ability as a leader. Do not make the mistake of trying to identify, guess or assume who said what. Like it or not, if the majority of people hold the same or a similar point of view, then that is the reality and that is what you need to work with.?

It is amazing how quickly the perceived need for confidentiality disappears once the level of engagement goes up. Trust increases when people see and feel that points highlighted as needing attention are acted upon. When contributions are acknowledged and acted upon, it encourages more of that kind of behaviour and that is a sign of a truly engaged organisation.

A Simple Solution

I said earlier that most surveys fail, but as you can see, the solution is not rocket science! Be brave by being prepared to be vulnerable and asking for some feedback. Your people are your best sources of information and if they own the problem, chances are that they will be prepared to be part of the solution as well.

Be clear on what you are trying to achieve. The goal must be to create an environment where you have a truly engaged team which isn’t viewed as the ultimate prize, but rather as the beginning of a journey. The real prize is what an engaged, motivated and productive team is able to deliver.