Increasing Organizational Success and Employee Engagement

Assigning numbers to theories is the perfect way to present multiple theories of life and leadership. There are various books written by Gary Chapman, including The Five Love Languages, The Five Languages of Apology, and The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. Assigning numbers to theories is the perfect way to present multiple theories of life and leadership. There are various books written by Gary Chapman, blished on January 26. Those steps were:

1. Engage your people
2. Communicate effectively
3. Identify and remove internal roadblocks
4. Align your metrics
5. Use training and development strategies
6. Focus on your business strategy

Trust and Cooperation

Recently, I attended a day-long training based on the tenets shared in the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, authored by Patrick Lencioni and published in 2005 by Jossey-Bass. The training also recommended a field book, which I purchased before the day was over. If you are not familiar with Lencioni’s work, you should be. His list of his books include: The Five Temptations of a CEO; The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; Death by Meeting; Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team; Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars; The Truth About Employee Engagement; The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family; Getting Naked; The Advantage; The Ideal Team Player; The Motive,; and The Six Types of Working Genius. I read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team years ago, and the premises still hold up today.

My day was well spent participating in the training, and part of the requirement was that my laptop stayed closed, with designated breaks for email review. As I looked around the room, I saw some cheating, with participants looking at their phones. I doubt the cheaters will ever be your best long-term employees and actual team members.

Your best teams are built on a common language and the spirit of trust and cooperation. Organizations must work with smaller staff and use more efficient tools in today’s ever-changing workplace. As a trained mediator, I found that the theories found in Lencioni’s work resonated with me. They should with you as well. Lencioni utilizes a fable to tell the story. The facilitators were both former CEOs of large organizations. We all know that CEOs of small and large organizations rely on their direct reports and those they report to. Those same CEOs must be able to delegate and trust their direct reports. Therefore, CEOs must invest in their employees and understand their needs. CEOs who do not care about their employees tend not to retain them. I am not going to beat the dead you-know-what about how much turnover costs. So, what do your employees need? What do we all need? To identify what people need, I turn to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, initially presented in 1943. Abraham Maslow was concerned about what helps people thrive and reach their full potential. As the CEO, don’t you want your best employees to reach their full potential? Maslow’s needs are:

1. Physiological needs (basic survival: food, water, shelter, sleep).
2. Safety needs (security: personal and financial security, health, resources).
3. Love and belonging needs (social connections: friendship, family, intimacy).
4. Esteem needs (self-worth: self-esteem, achievement, recognition).
5. Self-actualization needs (personal growth: achieving one’s full potential)

Lencioni includes five dysfunctions to overcome in his book The Five Dysfunctions of Teams. They are:

1. Building trust
2. Mastering conflict
3. Achieving commitment
4. Embracing accountability
5. Focusing on results

So, who wants to work for or with others they do not trust? I advise individuals who seek my guidance to exit employers they do not trust and be more careful in selecting future employment.

To identify how different team members handle conflicts and can learn to work with their various styles, I use the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI). It is a self-assessment tool that measures how individuals respond to conflict and identifies five primary modes: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating. The instrument is a product of The Myers-Briggs Company.

Achieving commitment requires buy-in, and in our ever-changing—what I consider unsettled—workforce, CEOs need to work to reinforce the idea that we do not always have to agree to move forward. I always like the R.J. Garmston and B.M. Wellman model from 1999, the Five-Finger model for building consensus. This is how it works:

Participants raise their hands to show a number of fingers, ranging from a closed fist to five fingers, to express their level of agreement:

• Fist (0): Strong opposition—I block this decision.
• 1 Finger: I strongly oppose and need significant changes.
• 2 Fingers: I have serious reservations/doubts.
• 3 Fingers: I am in the middle/moderate agreement—I can live with it.
• 4 Fingers: I agree and support the decision.
• 5 Fingers: I enthusiastically support this as best possible option.

The purpose is to move beyond a simple yes-or-no and identify dissent to reach consensus. We do not always have to agree to support a decision.

Lencioni’s dysfunctions of embracing accountability and focusing on results are both obviously significant. Just about any organization can increase sales, but to sustain that, the products must be of quality. Today, people buy poorly made products all the time, and they end up in landfills or storage units or being donated.

To sustain success, your employees need to be able to give honest feedback to one another. Streaming is full of dystopian stories, and a repeated theme is letting people do things that destroyed the world as we know it. Every day and in every way, you, as the CEO, need to model being the best you can be. You know, always be ethical and think about the consequences of your organization’s actions. How will Tommy Norris run CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle?

The last premise of Lencioni is focused on results. What results do you want for your organization, no matter what your business sells or services?

Lencioni, Covey, and many others have ideas that increase your organization’s chances of success and employee engagement, thereby reducing turnover and sustaining long-term growth.

As the leader, you must also continue to learn and grow.

 

“Your employees are the heart of your organization.” Dr. Michele Harmon is a Human Resource professional, supporting clients in Texas and New Mexico that range in size from five to more than 3,000 employees. Email: micheleharmon1@gmail.com