Monthly Archives: January 2015

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Discover The Secrets To An Engaged Workforce – Part II

In my last post I introduced the concept of Motivation 3.0 and explained how it is the secret to an engaged workforce. I went on to define Autonomy (one of the three main components of Motivation 3.0) and how leaders need to give their employees autonomy over their roles at work. Today, I will define the second component of Motivation 3.0, Mastery.

Mastery

Mastery is defined as an individual’s desire to get continuously better at something that matters to that individual. This desire to improve in a particular area occurs when that individual experiences an activity that motivates and captivates them. Teresa Amabile said “The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences or business.“

Daniel Pink defined it this way “in flow, the relationship between what a person had to do and what he could do was perfect. The challenge wasn’t too easy. Nor was it too difficult. It was a notch or two beyond his current abilities, which stretched the body and mind in a way that made the effort in itself the most delicious reward. That balance produced a degree of focus and satisfaction that easily surpassed other, more quotidian, experiences. In flow, people lived so deeply in the moment, and felt so utterly in control, that their sense of time, place and even self, melted away. They were autonomous, of course. But even more than that, they were engaged.“

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Discover The Secrets To An Engaged Workforce

In my last few posts I have written about employee engagement in the workplace (Your Employees Are Happy . . . And Other Popular Myths and The Employee Engagement Survey Says . . .). I conducted an informal survey that indicated that 47% of employees felt that they were engaged in their jobs but their leaders felt that only 24% of their employees were engaged. This is a fairly large disconnect.

So, as leaders, what can we do to increase employee engagement and, at the same time, align ourselves with our employees around engagement (besides the ideas that I listed at the end of my last blog post)?

I believe Daniel Pink has done a great job of researching this topic and he has published his ideas in the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I will take a more detailed look at this in today’s post and over the next couple of weeks.

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And The Employee Engagement Survey Says . . .　

Last week I wrote a post entitled Your Employees Are Happy . . . And Other Popular Myths. In this post I explained that having happy employees and having engaged employees are not necessarily the same thing and that as business leaders we need to strive for engaged employees.

I provided links for two informal surveys to gauge where the readers of the blog sit with respect to the Gallup engagement poll results that stated that only 31% of US employees are engaged at work. I provided a survey for managers and a separate one for employees.

This week, we will take a look at a summary of the results.

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Your Employees Are Happy . . . And Other Popular Myths!

Are your employees really happy? What does “happy” actually mean? Are we even asking the correct question? Perhaps we should ask; “Are your employees engaged at work?”

According to Gallup only 31% of US workers are engaged at work (the numbers in Canada are similar to this). This is scary! It means that 69% of our workers are either not engaged or, worse yet, actively disengaged. This is costing our economy billions of dollars each year!

Being happy or satisfied at work is not the same thing as being engaged. According to Gallup, paying people high wages, providing Ping-Pong tables and free meals may result in “happy” employees and high employee satisfaction survey scores but it does not mean that your employees are engaged and productive. Jim Clifton stated; “A winning culture is one of engagement and individual contribution to an important mission and purpose. Human beings are not looking for company-bought goodies — they are looking for meaningful, fulfilling work. It is the new great global dream — to have a good job, not a free lunch. The dream is to have a job in which you work for a great manager; where you constantly develop; and where you can use your God-given strengths every single day.”

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What I Learned This Year And Why Its Important

This past year has been a very busy year for me. I have been “on the road” for about 3 weeks out of every month, traveling all over the US and Canada, twice to Europe, twice to India and down to Mexico City. My main role on these business trips is to review projects and provide insights, connections, suggestions and guidance wherever possible for the managers that are running these projects. The project managers are as diverse as the projects themselves which vary widely from around $20 million to upwards of $350 million. This has made for a challenging year!

Besides striving to provide value on these projects, I also try to learn as much as possible wherever I go. One of the interesting observations I have made is that regardless of culture, business environment, language or time zone, everyone wants to be successful. However, only those that are willing to take responsibility for their success actually achieve it. What I mean by this is that the people that take responsibility for their success do not let anything stand in their way to achieving success. For example;