The dedicated, consistent, tenacious pursuit of winning through people and culture.
The changes you are making today to your workforce need to be strategic, not reactionary, with an eye to the future. Times are tough, but there are opportunities to reevaluate your organizational structure, make changes that align to both your short- and long-term goals, and position for the recovery that is on its way. For the next two weeks, I am offering a blog series based on 25 years of extensive HR, talent management and staffing experience all grounded in the foundation as an ex-athlete to give you a roadmap to position you to win.
DEFEAT THE DOWNTURN AND WIN THE RECOVERY
- Part 3: Secure Your Winners
You have identified your winners. Now you need to make sure they know they are the chosen ones.
You have selected these individuals because you have wisely assessed them properly based on their attitude, performance and promise for success. You are betting on them for the future and you are investing your time, resources and emotions into developing them further. This is your winning team.
Your goal now is to make sure they understand their value and importance and that you secure their commitment in return. This is when your focus becomes about connectedness. I speak a lot about connectedness because it is at the heart of relationships. To have a relationship, you must connect with a person in some way. Most of the time, the more points in which you connect, the deeper the relationship.
The same is true with employees. They must have some connection point which ties and keeps them with an organization through good and bad times. The more you connect with your employees, the deeper and stronger that commitment becomes and the more engaged they are in their jobs. Usually, the more engaged they are, the happier they are. And happy employees stay.
There are four main areas to which an employee connects:
- The Team: Many people connect with others that surround them daily. They simply love the people with whom they work and want to keep working with them. They enjoy the collaboration and the reward of sharing common experiences with people they like or respect. Usually, this connection is supported by a strong company culture that makes those connections easier.
- Boss: There are some leaders who are good at connecting with employees and fostering strong loyalty and dedication. Usually, the qualities people like in a boss are mutual respect, accountability, transparent communications and shared vision or goals.
- Job: Some people are happy to connect with the unique qualities of their jobs. Perhaps it offers them an opportunity to travel to interesting places or a special type of work they really enjoy.
- Company: Connecting to a company itself can happen if the service or product is altruistic or part of a social platform important to the employee. It can also be a company that has created a culture that is special.
You must connect on at least one of these points with your employee. And the more ways you can connect, the better. Throughout my own career, there have been times I was engaged because I loved my boss. There were other times where I simply loved my work but couldn’t stand my boss. But I was the happiest during the times when I was connected on multiple levels.
Ask your employee to rate, on a scale of 1-3 (with 3 being the highest), the level of connection to team, boss, job and company. Discuss what obstacles may exist to connecting further. While you do not need to connect on all areas, keep in mind these are your winners. You should not be satisfied with only one strong connection point. You should make it a priority to connect more deeply on multiple levels. Formulate a plan of increasing the lower levels of connectivity, but more specifically, strengthening managerial relationships with these winners. Plant the roots as quickly and as deeply as possible to make it more likely your employee will stay because you have created emotional loyalty.
A big part of connecting with your employee is communications. We will talk more about the power of courageous communication in a later blog, but for now we are simply communicating transparently and engaging in a special way that recognizes the individual’s high potential and reinforces his or her significance. Work to understand ways the employee can be supported which unites the individual and the organization to overcome the challenges of today and embrace the promise of the future.
The Xtra Point*
"My teammates from the University of Wisconsin football team are people with whom I connected in a way that has never been replicated at any point in my life. We experienced many of the same challenges, painful losses, exhilarating victories and bonded more closely with every single experience. It may sound cliché, but the reality is they are my family for life, regardless of our differences, based on the shared connections we had to each other, our coaches, our positions on the team and the school as a whole. That multipoint connection is what makes teams deep and strong and long-lasting."