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Every organization faces management issues that can be perilous if ignored.
An extreme case occurred when a suburban bank not far from my office lost some 35 employees within a single week. Without knowing the details, it’s impossible to guess the causes. But it’s very likely this business suffered fundamental organizational issues. Although a number of specific moves might have been required to help the bank, one I often discuss involves creating a High Performance Organization (HPO).
I define an HPO as a place where people don’t “just work,” but instead are engaged in their work. Although they might not put it this way, workers of an HPO are committed and enthusiastic about the management’s mission, vision and values. Although nothing is 100 percent, HPOs tend to have workers that enjoy their jobs and exhibit a large amount of creativity.
It’s doubtful any organization will ever be entirely comprised of engaged employees. But research by the Gallagher Organization suggests that only 25 percent of a typical workforce is engaged. These are the core group who can always be counted on to produce and make things happen. They train the new people, carry the owner’s banner and support the organization, even through bad times.
The second group, about 15 percent of the typical workforce, is disengaged. They are disgruntled, negative and act to undermine the organization. They will throw cold water on any idea and attempt to take new employees under their wings and corrupt them. They are often technically competent but interpersonally incompetent. If management knew how much undermining and damage this group causes, they would drop them.
The third group of employees is the 60 percent who are neither engaged nor disengaged. They do their jobs then go home. They underachieve, in part, because they are not engaged but also because they may have not been recognized and encouraged to achieve. People usually live up to or down to the expectations others have for them.
In a high performance organization, you would ideally have zero percent of the work group in the disengaged category, no more than 15 percent in the middle group and the balance, approximately 85 percent of the work group, engaged. Imagine what it would be like in your work setting, without spending one more nickel on personnel costs, if 85 percent were engaged and nobody worked to undermine you? Imagine an organization where nobody is working against management and most people work at the highest levels!
My job is to help organization’s expand the engaged group of employees. If they cannot be converted, my objective is to extricate them from the organization. This may sound cold, but in a business climate where you have to do more with less, all employees must be firing on all cylinders at all times.
All of this takes an engaged management, and a management’s engagement often turns on how well they listen to their employees. Simply listening to employees is good for morale, but actually devoting time and attention is even more powerful. Real communications can provide management with valuable information while helping employees understand their roles. It’s a positive outcome that will benefit most organizations.
There are a lot of other thoughts that can enter these issues and I suggest you look at some of my other blogs and my website for more background. Most of all, take these issues seriously. They trip up at lot of organizations every week!
