What do we want from our managers?

Gallup has released some interesting findings from a survey of 7,200 employees across a wide array of organizations.  Gallup has done some outstanding work in the past showing that many workers are not engaged or even actively disengaged at their jobs.  The lack of engagement often has much more to do with a bad boss than it does with other broader attributes of organizations. In this survey, Gallup's results help us understand what employees desire from their managers.  Here are three big takeaways:

1.  People want their managers to communicate very often with them... daily seems to be the desired frequency.   They also want their bosses to be approachable.  Engaged employees tend to be those who feel very comfortable asking their boss a question at any time.

2. Employees desire clear guidance regarding objectives and priorities.   They want to know: What should I be working on right now?   What's most important?

3.  People want everyone to be held accountable in a fair way.  Equal standards for all: that's the desired state. 

Engaging Your Workers

Business Week interviewed Jim Harter of Gallup about the firm's extensive analysis of worker engagement (or should we say, disengagement) across the United States.  Gallup data show that only 30% of American workers are engaged at their workplaces.  If you think that this problem exists only in the United States, think again.  Harter explained that the global engagement numbers are even lower!  Harter offered some comments based on their analysis of the data:

We see workplaces that have doubled the rate of average engagement, and the variance has a lot to do with the quality of management. Having a manager who really understands the individuals they’re managing and gets them into positions where they can use their talents effectively is really important. And then we’ve also found that individuals knowing what they do best and knowing their talents and being aware of them so that they can then leverage them along with their co-workers is really important.  Another thing that kind of stood out to me in these organizations we studied that grew is they didn’t use the economy and changes in the economy as an excuse. When the economy dropped, they just leaned into it a bit more. 

As for those companies that have moved to open floor plans, well they might want to rethink that design.  Harter reports that people tended to be more engaged if they had "a space that they could call their own."   They enjoy collaborating with others, but they value their own space.   As for telecommuting, it does not harm engagement in general.   In fact, telecommuters tended to report slightly higher engagement on average.  However, the most engaged workers in the Gallup data are actually those who telecommute less than 20% of the time.  

Do you care? How to increase employee engagement

In this Fast Company interview, Gallup's Jim Harter comments on the sad state of employee engagement in American corporations.  According to Gallup's research, only 30% of the U.S. population is engaged in the workplace, i.e. deeply committed to their jobs.  52% of the employee population is disengaged, and 18% is actively disengaged, meaning that they are "actively against what the organization, and their boss, is trying to get done."  Those statistics are rather alarming. Some companies, of course, have begun to focus intensively on employee engagement over the last decade.  Harter comments on what leaders need to do to increase employee engagement:

So, what are the qualities of leaders that businesses must now be seeking? According to Harter, it begins with a combination of being results oriented and authentically concerned about the development of every worker. “Some people are better at getting results and some are better at developing. But, we’ve found both are equally important.”  Harter describes the most effective managers as being deeply caring--and capable of seeing, supporting, and adjusting to the differences in people. “They help people build jobs that fit them as an individual person, while still helping them get to the outcome they need from an organization perspective.”

Authentically concerned - it's such a simple, yet powerful idea.  Think about what makes great professors or teachers.  Beyond simply knowing the material or being able to explain concepts clearly, great teaching is about showing students that you care.  My colleague, Jane McKay-Nesbitt, has this great saying about teaching: "They must know that you care before they will care what you know."  The same principle holds true for leaders.  People will not follow you if they do not believe you care about their well-being and development.  Engagement starts with authentic concern.