Empowering their people, sharing the load, creating collisions and avoiding the FOFO*. Here’s how the best leaders will be keeping their workforce engaged, boosting productivity and enjoying next-level success in 2023. * that’s the Fear of Finding Out
Change how they do Change Management
When it comes to leading people through change, look no further than Horatio Nelson in battle mode. He knew that he couldn’t dish out instructions to his fleet when they were out at sea, chucking cannons and whatnot. Instead, he clearly set out his framework and objectives, then put trust in them to get on with it and interpret those objectives as the battle evolved. PizzaExpress chairman and ex-ASDA boss Alan Leighton also puts trust in his people to know what they’re doing: “The ‘what’ goes down, the ‘how’ up.”
Yet this ‘co-creation’ style of leadership, where employees are part of the strategy planning rather than just the recipients of it, is sadly still more the exception than the norm. The general feeling is that this approach is too risky but 2023’s top leaders know that they need to embrace uncertainty, while being super specific about goals so there can be no ambiguity. As George S Patton - deemed one of the world’s greatest military leaders - put it: “If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed by the results.”
Incidentally, the owners of a company that undertook our 12-week programme were able to reduce their weekly working hours from 55 hours to 32 hours a week. How? Because our programme paved the way for their employees to become empowered to take their own initiative and therefore reduce their leaders’ workload. Food for thought…
2. Be visible… and create collisions
Without visibility there can be no trust. And without trust, there can be no buy in for a company’s mission and goals. Essentially, if employees don’t see their leaders, all is pretty much lost.
Being visible for visibility’s sake doesn’t work either. 2023’s best leaders know they need to be present and proactively engage in meaningful connections with employees. And I’m not just talking about leadership town halls and structured leadership comms.
They’ll be creating what our chairman Brad Sugars calls ‘collisions’ at work. The water cooler moments… the chance to enquire about the kids… the opportunity to break bread. Leaders need to be doing this but also encouraging it across the organisation, ESPECIALLY in the hybrid/remote working world, and ESPECIALLY if people have joined the organisation since a hybrid/remote working model has been introduced. They haven’t built relationships over years sitting in an office face to face with their colleagues, they haven’t had the water cooler moments, so it’s even more important.
And if you’re working in a remote working model? Make the most of breakout rooms of 2-4 people so they can have meaningful connections, not just be sitting in large meetings. Break out rooms are your virtual collisions.
Incidentally, our programmes set up opportunities for participants to create these invaluable ‘collisions’, and our clients reap the benefits of meaningful connections and stronger relationships across the company. Everyone benefits.
3. Fight against the FOFO
The top leaders know they can’t expect things to get any better if they don’t know what the current situation is. All too often, leaders will avoid uncovering issues and asking what people really think, purely because they don’t want to hear bad news. Cue FOFO - the fear of finding out - or The Ostrich Effect. We’ve all done it at some point.. Whether that’s not checking the bank balance (especially towards the end of January, gulp) or not getting that medical niggle checked out, in fear of it being something serious or it requiring a lifestyle change.
But business decision makers also suffer from FOFO - whether that’s because they don’t want to take the responsibility for fixing it, don’t have the authority to or believe it’ll be a hard, uphill battle to lay bare the truth and try to fix the problem.
FOFO is a silent killer. The best leaders know that avoiding the elephant in the room is also inadvertently avoiding a far easier path to growth and success. Yes, home truths - and acting on them - is uncomfortable and hard, but is nothing compared to the burden of things left unsaid.
Instead of suffering from FOFO, great leaders will be asking questions. And truly listening. They’ll be smelling the air, and start impromptu conversations that produce golden nuggets of intel that they wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
2023’s leaders will be taking it up a notch and running surveys to get to the heart of how their people are really feeling. A good survey will take employees minutes to complete but will lay bare the stark reality of how they feel, and how they think the business can improve. That’s a lot of intel that’s otherwise wasted. Remember, the ‘what’ goes down, the ‘how’ comes up.
Incidentally, we conduct employee engagement surveys before, during and after every programme we run. That way, we can benchmark and measure progress and, more selfishly, prove the massive ROI that our programmes generate. But if you’d rather just do a survey and find out where you’re at when it comes to your employee engagement score, we can do it FOC, no obligation. Drop me a line to discuss.
Gone are the days where an employee engagement strategy was a document sitting in a Dropbox folder. For 2023’s best leaders, it’s about relationships and behaviours. It’s about creating leaders at all levels and embracing uncertainty. It’s about connection.
And finally…
Our Engage & Grow programmes create a safe, fun and productive environment for leaders and colleagues to come together and have the conversations and discussions that need to be had to get their organisation to where it wants to be. Get in touch with Rachael on Rachael@engageandgrowcentralmids.co.uk for a free, no-obligation discovery call to see how we can help you achieve your 2023 goals.
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