The Four Elements of Engagement

Today I was listening to a podcast with the former CEO of Campbell's Soup, Doug Conant (link to podcast). I was inspired by Doug's journey from taking over a struggling and declining company with the lowest team member engagement of any Fortune 500 organization to turning the ship around quickly to an highly engaged organization.

While the whole story is a great listen for anyone trying to continue to develop culture and engagement within their organization, there were two things that really caught my attention. The first was a quote, "To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace." I have long said that we must focus first on our team members so they can put their customers first but Doug really put that a different way for me. It's really a question of priorities. You need to work first to ensure that the basic needs of your team members are being met so you can then work on the things that position your organization in the marketplace. If those don't exist, it would be a good idea to take a step back and work on those until you, and more importantly your team, feel satisfied. Working to capture market share without doing that is like driving a car on ice - the tires will spin but you just won't go anywhere and it will be out of control.

The second thing was the four qualities that Doug says team members look for in a career to be engaged: 1. Living 2. Loving 3. Learning 4. Leaving a Legacy. To me, creating a position where someone can make a Living to me is a combination of compensation and flexibility. People need to be cared for so they can care for others. One of the things I try to do when we onboard new team members is to first find out why they even took the job. WHAT is it or WHO is it that they are working towards/for and how can our company help them achieve that goal. I've heard incredible stories from wanting the Harley Davidson that they never were able to afford to being the first in their family to own a home. How does that personal goal align with the company goals? If those two things line up, magic can happen for everyone and happiness ensues.

To be Loved at work means to be recognized and respected for the results and contributions that team members deliver. Results can be both measurable or intangible. If we recognize the salesperson for having the killer sales month, we can also recognize our support staff for going above and beyond to make things easy for our customers or for their teammates. Feeling the love in the workplace can be as simple as a thank you or an anniversary or birthday note. It's about being appreciated beyond just a bonus or other compensation.

To have Learning and growth opportunities at work means that there is the potential for progress in the career of the team. I've learned that not everyone is going to take advantage of these opportunities and not everyone wants to grow (a hard lesson for me) but this NEEDS to be there for those that do. It could be one on one time with someone across the organization regardless of the org chart, mentorship, educational opportunities, cross training, promotions, etc. Learning is more than just classes and books, learning is the ability to be exposed to something new, something that you are not yet qualified for but that you are being trusted to observe and grow into.

Leaving a Legacy as Doug says is to be connected to a sense of purpose. We are working for more than a paycheck when we are achieving this and that sense of purpose drives team members to deliver on our mission both for our clients and their teammates. When interviewing, it's also important to try to make sure that the individuals we are hiring on to our teams have a sense of purpose that aligns with the mission and the culture within the organization so that the integration of one into the other is easy and meaningful.

Doug also has a great article on LinkedIN that explains this in more detail! https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-engage-employees-4-simple-steps-douglas-conant/

I hope this short article made you think a bit about how you can take this away into your role or into your business and incorporate some of this into your strategy for making sure team members are engaged and thriving!

Andrew Golkin is the founding partner in Golkin Enterprises. Golkin Enterprises invests as an active partner into small businesses and works with existing team to grow the business and deliver results they never thought possible. The mission of Golkin Enterprises is to make the world a better place to live and work by helping like-minded business owners and teams achieve their full potential.