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We were recently riveted to the news
for the unfolding pirate drama being played out in the
Indian Ocean. Somali pirates had seized control of the
Maersk Alabama. Captain Richard Phillips, in the ultimate
demonstration of leadership, negotiated the release of his
ship and crew, in exchange for his life as a hostage.
Negotiations stalled while Captain Phillips floated adrift
in a powerless lifeboat, with limited food and water, held
captive by the pirates. On the fifth day, highly trained
Navy SEAL snipers shot the pirates and successfully rescued
the Captain, unharmed.
Throughout the ordeal, Captain Phillips
focus was foremost on the safety and well being of his crew. He
put his life on the line to save his team and show them he
cared. How about you? Where’s your focus?
Strive for excellence, not
perfection,
Peter B. Stark
and JaneFlaherty
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| Current economic realities
impacting nearly every sector of our business world
make a focus on the bottom line essential. In these
times, it’s easy to make employee satisfaction an
afterthought. Who cares?
In many battered
organizations, the prevailing sentiment is that
those employees who still have a job should be
grateful. The new rules for surviving the recession
seem to be favoring employers, with employee
recognition and appreciation taking a back seat to
basic organizational survival. It’s the first time
in recent history that employees have had so few
employment options. Many are hunkered down, riding
out the recession, happy to have a paycheck. Held
somewhat captive until the economy turns, why care
about employee satisfaction and morale?
When employees know you care
for them, it is easier for them to be “engaged.”
Engaged employees are your competitive edge. There’s
a difference between just showing up for work and
being exuberant, positive and ready to tackle
whatever comes your way. By demonstrating that you
care, you will receive the extra, or discretionary
effort commonly referred to as “engagement” from
your employees. Engaged employees not only
accomplish their work, but demonstrate additional
initiative, creativity and motivation which ensures
success at every level. When struggling for
survival, it’s critical that you demonstrate that
you care about each employee on your team as being a
unique contributor, individual first, employee
second.
Many leaders can buy into
engagement but are not comfortable with the caring
part. They feel employees are paid to do a job and
“caring” is optional. If you don’t care about your
employees, they won’t care about you. It’s only when
you as a leader genuinely care about your employees’
personal and professional success that they begin to
care about your success. When you make recognizing
and caring about your team members a priority, you
will see morale improving, productivity increasing,
employees’ assuming more responsibility and your own
personal reputation for being a great leader
improving.
Four tips to show your team you care:
1. Listen to your team members. Understand
their concerns. Each time you sincerely listen, you
demonstrate that you care about your employees and
value their ideas and opinions. It sounds so easy .
. . just listen. Then why is it so hard for many of
us to do? Because we’ve been trained to listen just
long enough to solve the employee’s problem. Break
your routine by asking open-ended questions and
fully listening to the response. Ask, don’t tell.
Listening silently says, “I care.”
2. Be a coach and mentor. Make it a point to
consistently provide timely, constructive feedback,
not just at review time. When things don’t go well,
assume that the poor performance wasn’t intentional.
When you identify the problem, share your confidence
in the employee’s ability to correct the problem.
This belief demonstrates that you care. Look for
talent on your team. You have a team member that is
ready and willing to take on additional
responsibility. Provide resources and training
opportunities to help team members grow and further
develop their careers.
3. Hold people accountable to high standards.
While it’s true that people have differing
abilities, each person was determined competent when
they were hired. Allowing some people to perform
below acceptable standards is inexcusable and
destroys the morale of those employees that hold
themselves accountable to achieving high standards.
Holding all employees accountable for their success
demonstrates you care about all team members and are
committed to coaching, counseling, and if need be,
sharing the non-performing team member with a
competitor.
4. Recognize the unique contributions of your
team members. Most of us supervise a diverse and
talented team. Providing recognition specific and
unique to a particular team member demonstrates you
recognize and value his/her talent. Rather than
saying, “great job,” it’s more powerful to be
specific and say, “Thanks for your report. I never
would have thought of showing the data that way,
which is a big improvement over the way we were
doing it. I appreciate you taking the initiative to
improve our process.” Providing unique and
consistent recognition demonstrates you care.
If you’re still reading this,
you get it. Employees who feel cared for are
engaged. They consistently deliver exceptional work
on a daily basis. Whether this is a recession,
depression or “decession,” your employees will be
the ones to ensure your organization’s success. When
the economy improves, where will your team be -
still with you, or looking for another job? You can
bet the crew members of the Maersk Alabama won’t
ever consider jumping ship and sailing with another
captain.
Need
help? Peter Barron Stark Companies has
been building organizations where employees love to
come to work and customers love to do
business for more than twenty years.
Our Services Include:
Please visit our
blog,
www.peterstark.com, contact us via email,
peter@pbsconsulting.com or call us toll free,
877.727.6468.
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