"How do you make the company better when everyone is already angry with it!"

Walking the factory floor

This is where my company engagement journey began, walking around the factory floor and having a moment of realisation that although we were doing OK and being productive but I had this feeling inside that we could be doing better! What I knew was that I couldn’t ask more from my standout team members – my leaders on the front line who always give 110% and after listening to clips and podcasts from the leading forefront on engagement the likes of Simon Sinek, Marcus Buckingham, and Daniel Pink and resonating with the approach that no longer can we operate with the mindset that has taken our 65 year old company to this point which is “do as I say” leadership style that has performed well until the turn of century when the boss was all powerful and lead with an iron fist. I also knew that I was not this leader and that it is not the environment I wanted to continue to grow. I wanted our employees to enjoy their work and work with us “not for us” being a part of this journey together. ??

So, where do I start? What do I do? These were the questions I asked myself knowing nothing about how to embark on this journey. After listening to more podcasts and talking to the teams, the reality of the situation is that I needed to connect with them and understand them on a new honest level. As a family member, you are always looking through rose tinted glasses and although you know there is always areas to improve you love what you do and you don’t get to see the day to day struggles per say, through your employees eyes and very rarely do you stand in their shoes and reflect. You also very rarely get an honest account, the term; The tree of hanging monkeys – is apt where the person looking down always see smiles but the person looking up only see’s an ass!

So, we started with a simple anonymous survey feedback form with 6 questions. This would give us a true understanding of where we were at with our employee engagement.

1.??????Do you understand your role in the company?

2.??????Are you supported in your role in the company?

3.??????In your role are you able to perform at your best and are you recognised for doing so?

4.??????If you make suggestions, are they taken seriously?

5.??????Do you enjoy your work?

6. Is there anything else you would like to add?

The results were very honest and real, and we identified that we did have an engagement issue and a happiness issue. Although I struggled to resonate with the comments. The one thing I could not do was dismiss their account of the situation. I didn’t get mad or angry, what I did was thanked everyone who took part. As Simon Sinek says “feedback is a gift and you must thank the person that gave it to you. You do not have to agree with it, but you must accept it as a gift, and remember if you do get angry and frustrated and cannot let it go then maybe then it’s a true and it has identified the area you need to work on”*.?

The results of our survey were that 5% of the employees really understood their role in the company. 35% were mid-range engaged were ticking along. It was the remaining 60% of our staff were clearly unhappy not enjoying work and this ultimately meant that we were under performing and had a disengaged workforce but now the first step had been taken from this position I could take stock and plan the next move.

If anyone is looking to take their first step, I would love to know more of how you are doing on this great journey. ?

Yours

George Roche???????????????????

?*?Reference - Diary of a CEO – Steven Bartlett – Simon Sinek Podcast???????????????????????????????????????????????