Tag: Employees

The 7 Best Employee Gifts

Jon Rennie

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This is the time of the year where we think about gifts. We gather with family and friends and exchange gifts that we hope will be meaningful.  It’s also the time of year where we begin to reflect on the past year and plan for the next.

As you think back on this past year as a leader, what gifts did you give to the people who work for you? I’m not talking about physical gifts but the things you did that will leave a lasting impact on your employees.

A 2013 study by Glassdoor found that 66% of employees believe their direct managers had an impact on their careers. 52% said the impact was positive while 20% said it was negative. Whether we like it or not, leaders affect the careers of the people who follow us.

As I look back at all the leaders I have worked for, I can think of many gifts I have received that have helped me grow in my career but these seven stand out as the best:

  1. The Gift of Trust – As a junior officer assigned to my first submarine, I had a commanding officer who regularly chose me for the toughest assignments. Even though I doubted my own skills, he trusted me. That trust gave me confidence.
  1. The Gift of Appreciation – I once had a boss who sent a large basket of cookies and snacks to my home after he hired me. He included a note that said, “I’m looking forward to all the great things I know you will do.” It was a simple gesture that said he appreciated me as a person even before I started work.
  1. The Gift of Faith – The leader who selected me to run my first manufacturing plant chose me for the job, despite the fact I had never run an operation before. His action told me that he had faith in my abilities and I worked hard to prove him right.
  1. The Gift of Support – When I was going through a career transition, I had several former bosses go out of their way to provide support and advice.  Their support during a stressful time was exactly what I needed to make a successful transition.
  1. The Gift of Encouragement – As a young design engineer, I had a major failure of a new product at the test lab costing my company thousands of dollars. I had to call my boss to give him the bad news. Instead of a reprimand, he encouraged me to learn as much as I could about the failure, improve the product, and to get back to the lab.
  1. The Gift of Recognition – I have had bosses present me awards or have recognized me publicly for my actions. In most cases, it was a total surprise. Although I don’t work for the recognition, it is nice to get that type of positive feedback.
  1. The Gift of a Challenge – I once had a boss challenge a business plan I developed. Even though I had created a solid plan, he asked one simple question which changed everything. He said, “This is great, but what are you missing that could create even more growth?” That challenge was the catalyst that changed our entire thinking and business model.

As we approach the end of the year and begin to reflect, think about the gifts you have been giving. What are you doing to grow your employees? What lasting impact will you have on their careers?  What is the spark that will ignite their growth as a leader? What can you do differently in 2017 to give even better gifts?

Desperately Seeking Leadership

Desperately Seeking Leadership

Jon Rennie

 

I had a great opportunity to teach a session on leadership to a group of students finishing up their MBA program at a major university last week. My presentation was titled “Leadership Matters – Lessons from the Front Line.” The feedback I received was positive but a bit surprising. The students said the presentation was extremely valuable because it exposed them to the real world of business leadership. They said it was the first time they had a chance to listen to a seasoned executive talking plainly about the challenges of leading people. As it turns out, there are actually no courses on leadership in their program of study.

The sad truth is that most managers today have not received any formal leadership training. Most employees are promoted into leadership positions, because of their education, seniority, technical skills or past performance. Most simply learn leadership “on the job” and many don’t have the necessary talent to be a leader. This is probably why there is such a leadership gap in business today.

In fact, the Gallup organization just released a study on leadership in the workplace and their findings were shocking. They found that 70% of employees remain disengaged at work, a number that has stayed consistent for the past 12 years. They also found that leadership played the most significant factor in the level of employee engagement. They found that leaders accounted for almost 70% of the variance in employee engagement across businesses and business units. Their conclusions were clear and disturbing. The lack of great leaders in companies is the primary reason for poor employee engagement.

Even worse, they concluded that great leaders are rare and difficult to find. Their study showed that only one in 10 people possess the high talent to lead people. Those 10% have the natural skills and abilities to engage employees, work with customers, retain top talent and create a high-performance culture. They also found that an additional 20% of people have some of the characteristics necessary to be a great leader. Those individuals can become great leaders if their company invests in coaching and developmental plans for them. Their conclusion was that great leaders are hard to find and most will require coaching and training to reach their full potential.

So how can you close the leadership gap in your organization? Let me suggest four areas of focus:

Look for leadership talents and abilities in your employees. Great leaders are hard to find but even harder to find if you don’t actively look for them. You should spend time with your employees looking for those that step up and naturally lead projects or initiatives.

Give potential leaders the opportunities to lead. If you have an employee with leadership potential, regardless of their seniority or experience, give them an opportunity to run a small project or lead an activity. This will give you an opportunity to validate your assumptions.

Promote leaders based on leadership talents and abilities. It is important to avoid the pitfalls of promoting based on seniority, technical skills or past performance. Only about 30% of your employees will actually have the talent to be a great leader. Look for leadership talent and abilities first.

Train your leaders like any other discipline. Employees with leadership talent still need coaching and training to become great leaders. Leadership skills are like any other skill. They must be taught, trained, and practiced to reach a high level of proficiency. Since leadership directly drives employee engagement and business performance, leadership training and development should be a top priority.

The Gallup study makes a clear case for solving the employee engagement crisis in this country. The solution is simple, we need better leadership. The problem is that great leaders are hard to find and companies today are not doing a good job indentifying, promoting, and developing leadership talent. As leaders in our organizations, we need to change this. We need to keep a careful eye out for leadership talent in our employees, give potential leaders a chance to lead, promote leaders based on leadership abilities, and develop our leaders through coaching and training. If we place a high value on leadership in our organization, we can begin to create the culture of employee engagement we so desperately need.

So what do you think? Are the results of the Gallup study a wake-up call? Are there other things that need to be done to solve the employee engagement crisis in America? Do you think great leaders are as rare as Gallup says they are? Why can’t every employee be a great leader?