Capture the Heart and Unleash the Joy

Do you remember the feeling you had as a child on the playground while swinging from the jungle gym?  Your arms free, the sun on your face and the tickling feeling in your tummy from laughing upside down.  It was that feeling of pure joy.  You had so much strength and confidence that there was nothing you couldn’t do.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could create that feeling in our employees at work?    

The concept of capturing the heart and unleashing the joy is not a new concept.  It’s one I read about many years ago in the book, Getting Employees to Fall in Love with Your Company.  The author, Jim Harris, uses the description of capturing the heart and unleashing the joy to illustrate the type of environment where “possibility” is the norm.  Although this concept originated some twenty years ago, it is even more relevant today.  Our employees not only need a workplace that is inspiring, respectful and creative, they want to work where people can engage deeply and where they can take daily action that will contribute value to the communities they serve.  Today, employees want more than a job, they want a work experience.

Our organizations are in a unique position to offer this type of work experience where we can capture their hearts and unleash their joy through the purpose driven work we engage in every day.  We can create this healthy, thriving work environment by focusing on three areas: create an authentic work experience, build and nurture a collaborative environment and monitor and promote the health of our workplace culture.    

Create an Authentic Work Experience

When we work to create an authentic work experience, our leaders, managers and staff take steps to actively ensure the values, behaviors and goals of the organization are in lockstep with the organization’s actual practices.  This authentic experience demonstrates the concept of living values when the values we identify through our vision and mission statements are the values demonstrated daily in the behaviors and interactions of our employees.  We must act from our values.  When an organization delivers an inconsistent message or engages in behaviors that are not congruent with the stated values, employees see a work experience that is inauthentic.  This creates confusion for the employee and, rather than capturing the heart and unleashing the joy, they become cynical and resistant to the direction of the organization.  This inevitably impacts the delivery of services we provide our communities.  When we create an authentic work environment built on our purpose and living values, we capture the hearts of our employees.

Build and Nurture a Collaborative Environment

Unleashing the joy within our employees can occur when we strive to build and nurture a collaborative environment.  Today’s employees seek to work with an organization that feels more like a team than an organization chart.  Today’s employees seek an organization that is transparent with information and encourages all of its employees to be engaged in the decision making process.  This collaborative environment should be demonstrated not only in the processes and meetings, but also in the physical layout of the work environment; where employees can be inspired to engage in impromptu meetings and where problem solving can occur organically and without formality.   This more collaborative and team environment will result in a more nimble, energized and engaged work environment – in other words, unleashing the joy within your employees. 

Monitor and Promote a Healthy Workplace Culture

Workplace cultures that capture the heart and unleash joy through authentic work experiences and collaborative environments require maintenance.  Just like a tropical fish tank requires clean water, so does our work environment.  Maintenance is achieved by leaders and managers staying connected and in tune with their employees.  Below are eight questions you should regularly be asking to ensure the health of your workplace culture. 

1.    Do our employees understand the purpose of our organization?

2.    Do our employees understand how their individual job contributes to the success of our organization?

3.    Are we demonstrating an authentic work experience and making “our values” “living values”?

4.    Are we transparent in our communication?  Do we share what we can promptly and broadly?

5.    Do we regularly seek our employees’ opinions and input in the decision making processes?

6.    Do we encourage collaboration, innovation and organic problem solving or do we foster formality and procedure?

7.    Do we celebrate milestones and success?

8.    Do we support and encourage our employees to do their best every day?

When we capture the hearts and release the joy of our employees, we create a culture that drives a work experience like none other.  One where employees actively and vigorously engage and where they have a sense of confidence and empowerment to fulfill the most challenging goals and needs of the communities we serve.

So you think I'm average?

I had an employee contact me devastated by their last annual performance review.  I was surprised to hear their concerns, I was not aware of any issues with this employee, then there it was - they had been rated “average”.  The “average” review rating is a silent and destructive area in performance management.  The concept of “average” can demotivate an employee and can encourage managers to inflate a review to avoid the conflict, but aren’t most of us average?  

If you follow the GE, Jack Welch measurement, 80% of your employees are “average”, “satisfactory”, “competent”, but do you think 80% of your employees want to be thought of as average?  If we are managing honestly and 80% of our employees are considered competent, what can we do?

This week, the Society of Human Resources Management posted a growth trend on this topic. They stated, in 2012 4% of employers were eliminating their ranking on their annual reviews and in 2014 it had grown to 12%.  The report shares that businesses are moving away from qualitative “angst-ridden” traditional ranking systems to a more qualitative approach.  

Is the solution that we modify our performance reviews to eliminate the ranking?  When designing a review tool it should be just that a tool.  A performance review is a tool can align individual employee’s behavior with your organization’s goals.  It also documents when performance expectations are met.  But a performance review tool and its overall rating won’t motivate an employee.  An employee’s motivation will only be inspired by their manager’s daily behavior.
If the manager is motivating the employee everyday then a review rating should be consistent with that message.  Well before delivering the written review the employee should know where they stand.  If your employee is meeting your expectations they should know this and they should know why their contributions are important to the organization.  

What are some ways a manager can communicate average in a motivating way throughout the year? Employees want to know how their behavior positively impacts the organization.  So if you can frequently remind them using specific examples it provides employees with that valuable connection. There are many methods to provide frequent and ongoing feedback to your employees and how to communicate their strengths.  I rely on the CCL created (Center for Creative Leadership) feedback model “SBI”– Situation, Behavior and Impact.  I emphasize the “impact”, because it is in the “impact” portion of this model where you can communicate the most value with any employee.  
I also like the SBI because it is simple and easy to use.  Just remember, SBI.  S or Situation, you communicate a specific situation or anchor point (during the morning meeting).  You add the B or Employee’s Behavior (when you shared your conversation on a step that wasn’t working in our delivery system).  Then for the most important step, add the “I” or impact.  The impact their behavior had on the organization (we were able to reduce two hours on our time to delivery).  No matter what the model you use, your manager feedback should be used with a high level frequency.  

Any employee but especially your 80%, appreciate seeing the impact they have to the organization and can find security in their contributions.   A simple technique but often placed on the back burner in the daily chaos of a manager’s life, but with practice like any skill, it can become a daily routine for managers and provide an anchoring effect for your employees.    

Performance reviews will continue to be a difficult subject for employees and managers alike.  New review systems will be introduced every few years and will be marketed at the newest and most effective method, but one thing will never change, effective and frequently one on one communication.  When a manager shares how employees behaviors impact the organization.  It is in that “impact” communication where an employee will see they are special, unique and a contributing member of the organization.

Did you have a good manager communication story to share or a devastating annual review meeting?

Why can't I wear my flip flops at work?

Have you ever had the experience, that while you are in the middle of a heated debate, you suddenly realize, they have a really good point.  This happened to me recently when I shared a company’s no flip flop policy with an employee who wore flip flops to work.   His debate points - meaningful. “How were his flips flops less safe and less professional then the open the toed sandals, stilettos or platform shoes worn by his co-workers?”  When it comes to footwear and dress code policies you need to consider several areas to ensure your policy is effective.  An effective policy supports a safe work environment, reflects your desired work culture and is consistent and fair.

Safety is the first and easiest consideration.  Start with the environmental demands of your organization’s workplace and the specific physical demands of your positions.  When you focus on the work environment and specific job safety needs you can quickly and fairly determine, is it or isn’t it acceptable footwear.  For example, if the work environment uses heavy equipment and the jobs are performed in a variety of work environments including outdoors; then in this type of environment, all of the above shoes would not be acceptable.  When job and workplace safety demands are the criteria for your footwear policy it is much easier to communicate and get your employees full support on a more restrictive footwear policy.

The next safety consideration should be to review your workers compensation policies and State Workers Compensation laws.  Flip flops can be one area of concern with your workers compensation plan.  Make sure you know the rules and if there any shoes that would impact a workers comp claim, those shoes should be included in your policy and again communicated and reinforced consistently.

The more challenging environment to evaluate an effective dress code policy is the typical office environment.  Here is where you need to again consider basic safety and then look at the desired culture of your workplace.  Do you want a casual or formal attire workplace?  Are customers coming into the business office and what type of environment do you want to portray to them?  If you are a casual or formal environment will your company attract more qualified candidates from your type of industry?  

As a manager, you may have a bias toward an acceptable dress code, but be careful to weigh your preference with the desired culture trends in your industry.  You don’t want your dress code preferences to negatively impact your company from being the employer of choice.  Ultimately, the desired culture needs to be established and communicated to all employees and reinforced consistently, are you starting to sense a theme here.

It’s also important to consider my flip flop wearer’s point of view.  How were his shoes less acceptable than his co-workers?  When considering what is fair you should apply the guidelines above, safety and desired work culture, then use objective criteria to define the fairness your policy.  If you have a normal office setting and you want a more formal environment then what types of shoes are defined as informal?  I have seen a variety of objective criteria used to define the formality of foot wear.  Such as, no open toed shoes, heel height, etc.  My personal favorite is no barefoot employees.  A possible future blog topic, “Uncomfortable shoes leads to barefoot employees in the workplace”.  

Be cautious, when you are establishing your objective criteria - don’t go too far.  I recall an interesting phone call with a “President” of an organization.  He was expressing his concern that his staff had taken casual Friday too far.  I realized he had also taken it too far, when he was asked me, “Which is the longer pant leg, capris or clam diggers?”  Be careful that your objective criteria doesn’t require your managers to carry around a ruler to ensure your dress code is met.  

As a manager and leader, your job is to create a work environment that supports company growth. Yes, that means defining the level formality in your work environment, but you are also communicating safety priorities and defining who you are as a workplace.  As leader, you should consider how you want to define your culture and how you want to attract the best employees to come work for you.  You would be surprised how much influence your dress code will have on your ability to recruit potential candidates.  To a candidate dress code can tell them a lot about what it’s like to work for you and your organization.

Is a Dandelion a weed or a flower?

Recently, Denver has experienced a lot of rain and this week I noticed a distinct difference in my neighborhood - yards with and yards without dandelions.  This got me thinking, when did we define a dandelion as a weed rather than a flower?  Google tells me that the Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is the most hated weed in the United States and one of the most versatile herbs.  The Dandelion is chock full of vitamins A, B, C and D and their roots are used in tea, salads and to make wine!  An internet ad said, “Dandelions helped a 55 year old look 35!”, but I digress.  This contradiction, where something can be so detested and something that can be so valued is an easy comparison for me to make to the work world and in particular our employees.  

Why is it that an employee can thrive in one environment and yet in another be completely miserable, as well as, a daily stressor for their manager.  You got it, it's all about the right fit.  The right fit means skills and experience match the skills and experience required to do the job.  The right fit equates an applicant’s work values and philosophy to fit with the values, philosophy and culture of an organization.  The right fit, in these terms are easily recognized as important by a manager but the right fit is also about looking for the Dandelion or the “wrong” fit.  

The Dandelion fit is when a manager wants to take their open position and turn it into an opportunity for growth.  If you’re looking to create growth and change in your organization through the Dandelion Strategy then you need to change your recruitment and retention strategy.  Growth through a Dandelion Strategy is 10% searching and accurately selecting the right candidate and 90% having the right leadership skills to ensure the work environment is conducive to their success.  
We need to start with what are the characteristics of our Dandelion candidates.  List the skills and abilities that aren’t on your team right now.  List what other industries or fields might have candidates with transferable skills but different life experiences?  List personality traits that would complement your teams?  Is your team all introverts?  Maybe it’s time for an extrovert!  What are the demographics of your customers and the demographics of your competitors?  With your new list in hand update your job title, job description, job expectations and definitely an update your job posting.  

Using your new job posting you need recruit through different sources of applicant pools than you have in the past.  This includes listing your job posting under different categories and industries. Use different associations, networks and LinkedIn groups.  Revise you interview questions and candidate criteria and ensure your interview process includes selling the Dandelion on why they should make this risky move to a new and different organization.  

The Dandelion recruitment strategy also needs a complementary onboarding and retention strategy. A manager must create an environment that welcomes and encourages their unique employee and a real commitment must be made by the manager to ensure the culture encourages this unique employee and supports them in their new ideas and new ways of working.  As a manager, you also must be comfortable and open to questioning your own "status-quo" way of doing things.  

Often managers create a great first week experience, but after the first week that employee is left isolated in a very different work world.  A weekly one on one meeting will not suffice to successfully position this candidate in your environment.  Without frequent manager and coworker support they quickly begin to feel more like the Weed Dandelion then the Flower Dandelion.  When we look to push our own boundaries as a manager and the boundaries of our team it is hard work and requires regular and ongoing leadership and communication.

Ideas for managing your new Dandelion beyond their first week is a 30/60/90 day reinforcement plan and match them to a peer pal.  As their leader, you need to regularly and frequently ask - what did you do differently today?  What’s frustrating you the most?  What barriers can I remove?  Avoid the path of assimilation, their peer pal, the environment and you as their leader are there to reinforce the differences rather than how can better “fit in”.  

Making the transition from weed to flower for a talented employee can be very beneficial to the employee, to the team, to the organization and to definitely to the manager’s growth.  But if a manager isn't able to truly commit and adapt, or if they select the wrong unique fit or the unique fit at the wrong time.  It can be very damaging to the employee, the work group and to the manager.   A manager must prepare the work environment; nurture the unique employee and demonstrating the need and value to the whole group.    

Tell me about a successful or unsuccessful Dandelion story you experienced?