To get the most out of the book start by reading Appendix A — The 2018 ADP Research Institute’s Global Study of (worker) Engagement. Its gist: Despite all the “30,000-foot wisdom” on how creative organizational culture, goal-setting and the necessity of feedback create an engaged, productive employee, over 84 percent of the 19,346 employees surveyed said they simply “came to work.” Over 83 percent said they were part of a team. Based upon those findings, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that ground-level, dysfunctional teams cause disengagement.
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“Nine Lies About Work — A Freethinking Leader's Guide to the Real World” by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall (Harvard Business Review Press, $30).
To get the most out of the book start by reading Appendix A — The 2018 ADP Research Institute's Global Study of (worker) Engagement. Its gist: Despite all the “30,000-foot wisdom” on how creative organizational culture, goal-setting and the necessity of feedback create an engaged, productive employee, over 84 percent of the 19,346 employees surveyed said they simply “came to work.” Over 83 percent said they were part of a team. Based upon those findings, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that ground-level, dysfunctional teams cause disengagement.
The “Nine Lies” identified by the study play roles in team dysfunctionality because an unhappy teammate drags down the engagement and productivity of any team. Here's a snapshot of the top five lies:
1. “People care which company they work for.” — And the survey says: Employees care far more about the work they do, the challenges they are given, collaborative effort and the trust/respect of their colleagues. The responsibility for creating an engaged team rests with the team's leader. Like an orchestra's conductor, the team leader assesses and reassesses priorities, provides direction and coordinates actions. A poor team leader can't orchestrate harmony.
2. “The best plan wins.” and 3. “The best companies cascade goals.” — There is no “best plan” because the speed of change and things beyond the control of teams charged with plan execution will affect outcomes. Also, the people making the plans are far from the front lines so “they don't have enough real-world information upon which to make the plan in the first place.” Without from-the-trenches input, c-level plans are met with “they don't understand.” When plans are questioned from the get-go, kiss engagement goodbye.
4. “The best people are well-rounded.” There's a difference between “something you are good at” and a “strength.” Sports analogy: Every baseball team selects its starters because of their ability to play a specific position better than others on the team. You don't see infielders and outfielders changing positions. There are starting pitchers and relief pitchers. The “utility players” have value because their “strength” involves their versatility (i.e. they play a number of positions adequately).
A team in business should function the same way. When choosing to assign a task, learning opportunity, or challenge, its base elements should build from an employee's strengths. When starting from a strength base, an employee engages immediately. As the assignment progresses, the employee learns “something to be good at,” which complements their strengths and builds their versatility.
5. “People need feedback.” While employees need information on their performance, they need to find ways to improve performance rather than being told the right (even stars can improve) or wrong of how they're doing it.
The authors suggest a “brushstroke” approach for a team leader: It involves letting the employee paint a new self-portrait based upon what's working, what worked in the past and what could the future look like.
Start the new self-portrait by asking what three things are working well. When an employee sees some things are going right on their job, he/she sees a base for moving forward.
Next, ask: “When you encountered situations like this in the past, how did you deal with them?” Allowing the employee to talk through what they've done to work through similar situations, builds a solution-finding mindset because they've been there, done that.
Last, ask, “What do you already know you need to do?” When you hear the response, ask, “What are a couple of actions you could take right now and what do you need from me?”
Helping employees deal with their issues on their own terms creates an “I can do it” mindset that increases engagement, which carries over to teammates.
Takeaway: High-functioning teams retain a company's talent.
