In a study it conducted on 50 global companies, the HR consulting group Towers Perrin was able to benchmark the impact of employee engagement on financial performance.  The results speak for themselves; high engagement companies had a growth in operating income of 19.2% while low engagement companies experienced a decline of 32.7%, during the same 12-month period. The graph below also shows the impact on Net Income and EPS growth.  (The full study is available from the Towers Perring website.)
 

 

 

The financial benefit is significant. The question for leaders is therefore how to develop engagement.  Approaches that are meant to foster team building and employee motivation are often met with suspicion and employee resistance.  This invariably occurs when efforts to create engagement are not part of what happens in the organization day in and day out, but appear to be afterthoughts in the eyes of employees.  True engagement develops only from a deliberate balance between leadership and culture.
 
Leadership is not an attribute desirable or possible in leaders only; it applies to everyone.  It is the ability of an individual to step forward to take initiative, see an opportunity or offer a solution.  For this type of leadership to occur the cultural environment of the organization needs to one of trust and empowerment.
 
I recently came upon a definition of leadership that capsulizes where leadership thinking needs to evolve.  The irony is that the words were written in 1924 by management consulting guru, Mary Parker Follett: "Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power, but by the capacity to increase the sense of power among those who are led. The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders."

"The organizational scans provided me and our senior management team with practical, big picture information much quicker than expected.  Rather than burning days before we saw the results of our assessment work, we were able to get helpful data right away.  This allowed us to make more rapid progress in defining and addressing our organizational realities and aspirations."
 
Allen Decker
Director of Communications and Development
BOTA Foundation
Almaty, Kazakhstan

The path is rarely the one most evident and tempting to take the existing situation and cobble a solution with a minimum of discomfort for all.  This approach is often a punt into the future with no one truly convinced it has a chance to succeed.
 

The right path is to take time, as a team, to look at all of the organization's vital elements, determining which will drive success going forward, working as much with the intangible aspects as with the tangible ones.
 

Our experience shows that the leader's ability to work in the intangible areas proves to be pivotal in moving from current reality to discovering new potential. Why? Because it is where the unspoken issues usually lie.  When the leader demonstrates a willingness to explore "hidden" realities and agendas, it is a sign for all that there is potential for things to be different. 
 

The next critical phase is when leaders begin to put forward their new vision or otherwise try to set a new direction.  If it happens too early in the team process, it immediately brings up resistance because it is perceived as a power play by the leader.  Stronger trust appears only when leaders open up their vision for discussion and show their willingness to listen deeply and to be vulnerable about their opinion.

 

Leaders still face the challenge of not bringing the past into the moment. Even though every leader has his or her assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of each management team member, displaying openness to what everyone says and withholding judgment allow capturing the fresh perspectives that each member now brings to move from current reality to new potential. 

 

Acknowledging and accepting where everyone is, and inviting each member's perspective into defining and shaping the new business brings with it the deeper commitment leaders need from their team.  The team commitment gives momentum to the subsequent tasks of setting strategy, determining roles and responsibilities, and designing the processes of the new work.

Scott Brumburgh

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