Enterprise Dynamics—Employee Engagement is About Purpose

by Coachcubas

April 10, 2014

What’s your premise about employees whether you’re the boss or the worker?
Do you think people work just for a paycheck?

As a coach, I ask what keeps people returning to a job over time?
Where do personal values fit in?

As a business coach, I find people at all levels make life more complicated than it needs to be. So, when I coach an individual, we distill down to reveal the simplest place to grow from. Reducing complexity can be challenging.

To discover some fundamentals of why people work, let’s begin asking these questions:
   1.   What’s your premise about employees?
   2.   Do people work just for a paycheck?
   3.   What keeps people returning to a job over time?
   4.   Where do values fit in?
   5.   What is the relationship between purposeful work and putting in time?

Often, power invades the work space, often based on titles and hierarchical positions. Interestingly, once people are removed from them, they are regular people (think the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain!).

Once we’ve exchanged ideas in a meeting, over coffee or asked for feedback on our questions, the review process can be revealing—Engaging employees brings us back to basics.
Let’s understand why they work at all.
How can we support them to be the best they can be in the position they hold?
What is the reality of a situation as it relates to the results we seek?

Employees like to belong to a company, association or organization that is larger than their world. They want to be part of something that surrounds them. This is one reason a company’s reputation is important; the “shine” trickles down on everyone. People want to be proud of where they work; they want to know they make a difference in their daily doings especially the Millennial Generation.

When leaders have issues with some of these, it is helpful to coach around their ideas and how they can relate or not to these issues. If leaders have no patience or appear rude, it affects employees. It sets a standard of behavior and broadcasts what is “important” to a manager or director. Often, higher level people do not even think about the impact of what they do. They do things because they CAN!

Simplify employee engagement by providing a welcoming, innovative space to function. Allow active exchange of ideas with ground rules, reward behavior a leader wants repeated and be authentic and caring when delivering company news, good or bad. After all, employees invest more time at work than they do with their families and friends. Let’s make it count in the plus column so they can bring that positive impact home with them.

What do you think? Please leave a comment. Thanks.
MC

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Coachcubas

As a credentialed business coach and analyst, one of my primary functions is to work with individuals and company managers to clarify where they are presently, where they would like to advance, and what tools they have and need to achieve their desired outcome.

I use a variety of tools to assess perceptions including Platinum Rule instruments, my experience and training in assessing behavior. My preferred tool is the EQ-i®, emotional intelligence inventory. I have specialized training on the EQ-i® and DISC Inventories and access to multiple other sources including a company culture index. I prefer the EQ-i® because it is the least judgmental instrument I have found. It focuses on strengths and areas of development related to the goals set by the individual. For example, people are more likely to apply the EQ-i®’s information rather than label themselves by the Myers-Briggs categories.

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