The Cost of Culture

THE ENGAGEMENT DILEMMA:

Employee engagement starts with engaged leadership.

Disengaged employees are a symptom of disengaged leaders at one or more levels in your organization.

In fact, research have studies shown employees are 40% more productive if they want to follow their leader compared to those who feel they have to follow their leader. In other words, the level of engagement below is determined by the level of engagement above.

Leadership development, or the lack of it, at every level determines morale, engagement, turnover, productivity, communication, teamwork, and how your customers will be served.

Unfortunately, many people are over-managed and under-led.

People who are led well become highly engaged.

People who are over-managed become disengaged.

Leadership development is the key to transforming the culture of your organization, improving your team’s results, and reducing costs in all areas.

THE RETENTION DILEMMA:

The competition wants more than your customers.

Have you considered there are two types of competition?

1. Those in the same industry who want to steal your customers
2. Those who may or may not be in the same industry who want to steal your people.

A leader’s ability to attract and retain high performance employees is a crucial factor for organizational success. Employees who are disengaged are far more likely to change jobs and even change industries because disengagement leads to dissatisfaction.

Minimizing employee turnover by increasing engagement through leadership development is critical to improving your bottom line.

As Heather Huhman stated, “87% of managers wish they had more training before becoming a manager.”

High impact leaders understand they must offer more development opportunities in order to become THE sought after employer of choice in their industry and in their area of operation.

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THE TURNOVER DILEMMA:

Are you tired of hiring, then firing?

Employees are primarily interviewed, selected, and hired based on their competency. In this case, competency means a leader believes the candidate has the required skillset, technical knowledge, and ability to perform the task or job.

However, most employees are terminated based on character.

Character relates to who we are and how we do what we do. It’s the “soft” skills, such as attitude, work ethic, integrity, behavior, and how we work with others.

In other words, employees are hired for what they know, but fired for who they are.

Performance problems are almost exclusively a character issue.

According to Daniel Goleman, “90% of our results as individuals and organizations is determined by character.”

However, most organizational training and development is focused on improving competency, not character.

For more on this topic, listen to Episode #179 of my Blue-Collar Leadership Podcast .