Employee engagement. It’s become something of a buzz phrase in the management and leadership world. While employee engagement isn’t that difficult, it does seem to be something a lot of leaders have a difficult time with. I recently saw an interview with Randi Zuckerburg. If you recognize the name, it’s because she is Mark Zuckerburg’s sister. She left a promising career with a marketing firm to join Facebook and help with the startup and then spent several years directing marketing for Facebook.

As a leader, something you should get from the interview is her feeling on being able to have and implement her own ideas; of being entrusted with projects that were really way beyond what you’d expect a junior marketing employee to do. She found this was the case in her first marketing job even before she joined Facebook. That is one of the keys to employee engagement: when employees feel they have an opportunity to have ideas and implement them; to be part of actually bringing things to life.

It’s true that you can’t have a company where everyone gets to go off and do their own things. But, when employees feel their opinions, their expertise is valued and will be given a fair hearing, and they’ll be able to do more than just be the person who runs and does things for other’s ideas, that’s when employees will really begin to feel engaged. And that’s when you as a leader will begin reaping the benefits of engaged employees.

So what are you doing with your employees? Are they just running around implementing your ideas, or are you giving them the opportunity to be part of the idea process themselves?

Here’s the link to Randi Zuckerburg’s interview with meettheboss.tv.  http://tinyurl.com/6rdlgc7

One of the first questions I like to ask leaders is about their vision. Do they have a vision and have they clearly articulated that for everyone in the organization? Unfortunately, many leaders I talk to don’t really have a good answer to that question. They haven’t sat down and really given thought to what their vision for the organization is. And, even if they have, they haven’t made it clear to everyone in the organization.

Having a big vision is important for two reasons. First, it provides a foundation for everything else in your organization. The other reason is that people follow a good vision. I mean a vision that is a big dream, maybe even a little audacious. People like to be part of something that seems a little bit out there and they’re more likely to be engaged if they feel they’re part of someone’s really big vision.

When I do see vision statements, they look a lot like mission statements. There is an important difference. The mission statement tells you why your organization exists and what it does; and all that is important, but it must be base on a vision statement. It doesn’t cover those factors, but tells everyone where the organization is going. It’s a statement about where you’re headed into the future.

Do you have a good vision statement? Whether you’re the CEO or you lead a section or division within the organization, you need to be able to tell everyone what your vision is for the organization.

Last week I talked about this interesting phenomenon of high unemployment and companies that can’t seem to fine qualified workers. I’ve also heard some complaints in the area of leadership that are quite similar where companies can’t seem to find the people they need to lead them into the future. In fact, when I was writing my book, Balancing the Generations, my research showed that many consider Generation X to not be leadership material. I think that’s kind of interesting to classify an entire generation that way, especially since I’ve worked with a lot of Generation X people and they do just as well at leadership as any other generation. I think part of the problem is that some companies just don’t know what they’re looking for in new leaders.

Here are a few suggestions. The first is integrity. If your potential leaders don’t have integrity, they won’t be very good leaders. In fact, if you’re not comfortable with their integrity, I’d ask why they work there in the first place.

The second thing is enthusiasm. Not everyone wakes up in the morning and hits the floor running, excited about what they’ll do on the job, but you’re looking for people who have a fairly positive attitude and they exude that in the workplace. It’s very important for a leader and picking someone for a leadership position that has a generally negative attitude about the job or the company is a recipe for disaster.

The next thing you want to look for is communication; can this person communicate their thoughts and ideas. Now it’s true that not every potential leadership candidate will be an excellent communicator, they’ll learn that as they go. What you’re really looking for is someone with an ability to express their thoughts, and a willingness to do that. I’m not suggesting you’re looking for people who are just contrary, but you do want people who obviously think and evaluate things and are willing to express thoughtful opinions.

The last thing I suggest is someone who has a generally positive reputation. Someone who is liked and respected by most people they know. This is not a popularity contest. What I’m suggesting are people who are generally on favorable terms with their co-workers. If everybody likes them there may be a problem, but more importantly, if everyone dislikes them, there definitely is a problem, and that will just get bigger as they move into leadership roles.

The last thing to talk about is the so called born leaders. Are leaders born or made? That’s a subject for another discussion but I’m always cautious about the person that everyone considers to be a born leader. So often they lead through what we call a charismatic approach. That seems to work for a while, but it relies on their followers giving them the authority to be that kind of leader and it’s very much a popularity contest. When they lose that popularity or their followers don’t like a decision, they can very easily lose their leadership authority with those followers. So, while it’s true that some people are born with the innate ability to pick up leadership skills, be very careful of those who you think are just born leaders because I really don’t think that’s what you’re looking for.

I suggest you develop a list of leadership techniques you’re looking for. Make sure all your current leaders have that list. It’s very important to know what you’re looking for and constantly be looking for that next potential leader.

I’ve been noticing something very interesting happening lately. At a time when unemployment is higher than it’s been in over 20 years, companies are complaining that they can’t seem to hire workers. They’re looking for specific skills and abilities and workers with those skills just don’t seem to exist. Some people suggest we should have a government program to retrain workers and give them skills that would make them more attractive to potential employers. I’m not a big fan of government programs, especially as they relate to business. I think there’s another way to approach this issue.

First consider what it’s costing you not to have someone in that position. Face it; we hire people with the express purpose of them giving back to the company. We hire people so they can further the company’s mission. That means that all the time that position is vacant, you’re losing money. Because there’s nobody there doing the job that will make money; that will improve your bottom line. On top of that, you have another expense. That’s the expense of recruiting, trying to find someone to fill that position. When you add it up and consider the amount of time that position is vacant, you’ll find you’re losing a lot of money.

Now compare that cost to the cost of actually training somebody to have the skills and abilities you’re looking for. I understand you can’t always train somebody to have the years of experience, but while you’re waiting for those years of experience, those costs are adding up. Wouldn’t it be better to find someone who has similar skills, but more importantly is enthusiastic, will be a good worker, will benefit your company, and then train them in the skills and abilities you’re looking for? Compare those two costs and I think you’ll see that training someone for the new position is actually a cheaper way to go. Besides, when you train your own people, you know they learn things you want them to learn the way you want them to do it.

You can wait for a government program, and it might happen, but in the time you’re waiting, think about how much money you will have lost.

August 28, 1963 was a warm and pleasant day in Washington DC as Martin Luther King mounted the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he looked out on the Washington Mall and several hundred thousand people. And then he uttered those famous words, “I have a dream.” “I have a dream that my four little children will live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” King had expressed a vision. He’d expressed a vision so well that it actually is credited with being a major force behind passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

What’s your vision? What’s your big dream? What would you like to see happen if nothing stood in your way? When you think about that, it becomes your vision. Once you’ve determined that vision, sit down with a few people; friends and people you really trust, and tell them what your vision is. If they don’t look at you like you’re just a little bit crazy, then maybe you need to work on it a little more. When people think you’re just a little crazy, it means you have a great, audacious vision, and that’s what people will follow.

Your vision doesn’t have to be a short term thing. In fact, it should reach way out into the future. What would you like to see a year, 5 years, 10 years from now? When King said “I have a dream, that on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves, and the sons of former slave owners will sit down together at the table of brotherhood,” he knew that wasn’t going to happen right then. He knew it wasn’t going to happen in the next few years. Unfortunately, King did not live long enough to see the first black mayor in Atlanta, or the nation’s first black governor in Virginia. But I believe he did foresee those things, because they were part of his vision.

Every leader should have a vision. People follow a leader with a vision, if for no other reason than to see where you’re going. So, have you thought about it? What is your vision and how are you going to express that to your followers?

Is it that time of year again for you? Performance reports! Everybody loves performance reports, whether you’re giving them or receiving them…ok, nobody really likes performance reports. They’re kind of a pain. The trouble is we make them more difficult than they need to be. I’ve certainly made the mistake, and I’m sure a lot of you have too, of waiting until the last minute, then sitting down to try and remember some things that happened over the last few months. A year ago? There’s no way you’re going to remember that. The end result is, you complete the requirement, but the performance report doesn’t have a lot of value: it doesn’t really accomplish anything.
I found the easiest way to do performance reports is to start early. Keep track of what your workers are doing. Keep little notes. I don’t mean just “So and so was late for work,” or “They didn’t finish the project on time” You may want to remember those things; but what’s as important if not more important are the times they did an excellent job or finished a little early. When they were able to complete a project when they were really under the gun; when they developed something new they can do or accomplish. When you have all this written down, the performance report, is easy because all the information is already there, you just have to write it out. But the other benefit is that the performance report now becomes something worthwhile, something valuable. You can sit down with your workers and actually discuss things intelligently. You’re able to point out the great things they’ve done and help them develop to be even better.
Performance reports don’t have to be terrible things. They can be a fairly easy, and certainly valuable, addition to your day.

Think about this. Don’t you wish your boss did it that way?

I was reading an article recently that talked about how leadership development was about selecting the next senior leader. And while that sort of thing is important in leadership development, there’s another part that is just as important, and that’s making sure that the junior managers and supervisors receive good leadership training in the fundamentals of leading people. I was watching an interview on meettheboss.tv, which by the way, is a good place to pick up some tips on leadership. The interview was with Liane Hornsey who is a vice president at Google. She said something that amazed me. She said that she had been a manager for 15 years before she really understood how to manage. Think about how much sooner she would have been so much more successful if she had had a basic leadership development program that taught her the fundamentals of leading people. Your leadership development program is more than just picking your next senior leader, but just as importantly making sure that those new leaders, those managers and supervisors, understand the fundamentals of leading people. And that’s what makes them successful and makes you successful.

So what are you doing to make your leaders succeed?

I like to watch the question forums on LinkedIn. They give me an idea what’s going on in the business world and I learn some things from the various questions and answers I see there. The other day I saw one that really caught my eye. Someone wanted to know what they should rename their training department. Of course the first question that came to my mind was why?

As leaders it’s important to always ask ourselves why we want change to happen. There’s nothing wrong with change, change can be a good thing. But we need to make sure change is happening because of something important and not just because we want to change. I remember some years ago going through the whole reengineering process. It was based on actually some pretty good ideas about how to make the work place more efficient. But it became almost a contest to see who could change what the fastest. I saw org charts changing, and people titles and the names of departments and division; it became change, change, change. We very quickly lost sight of why we were doing all this change in the first place and as a result the change did nothing more than confuse things.

You want to rename your training department? Go ahead and do that. But ask yourself why you’re doing it. Is the department taking on new responsibilities maybe shedding old responsibilities, or maybe it’s going to start operating in a completely different way. If that’s the case, and changing the name will help everyone understand that then its fine, change it. But if you’re just changing the name to keep up with the Jones’, then you’re probably wasting your time. And by the way, your workers will see that and they wonder why you want to waste time on something like changing the name of the training department. But, on the plus side, it will give them something to laugh at you about.

One of the exercises I advise new leaders to try is the “Good Leader/Bad Leader” List. It’s simple. Just draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. Title the left side, “What I’ve Seen Leaders Do That I Liked.” Title the right side, “What I’ve Seen Leaders Do That I Didn’t Like.”

The exercise is pretty self-explanatory from there, but it’s deceptively simple. Of course, you’ll write some examples in each category. Keep the paper handy and when new examples crop up, add them to one side or the other of your list.

Review the list occasionally. You will probably begin to see similarities between the issues you face now as a leader and those that you observed in the past. You may also find that what you recorded as good or bad leadership may not now fit quite as well in one or the other category. That’s because you didn’t know everything those leaders knew. When I was new to the working world, I found there were things I liked that my bosses did and things I thought were really quite stupid, and I failed to comprehend why they didn’t take my advice on matters I felt they were approaching incorrectly.

As I began taking on leadership roles myself, something became clear to me that was clouded in that brash, youthful exuberance. Leaders have to deal with circumstances that their followers don’t see. I discovered that some of the things I had observed my bosses do that seemed wrong actually came from a requirement or influence of which I was unaware. When I realized the rest of the story, their actions didn’t seem quite as wrong.

On the other hand, some of the things I had originally thought were good turned out to be a leader’s most expedient action in order to avoid more difficult, and perhaps unpopular, decisions.

And that is where the “Good Leader/Bad Leader” model comes in. The value in the exercise is two-fold. First, it’s good to think about what you see as good and bad leadership techniques. When faced with a particular dilemma I’ve always found it helpful to reflect on what my own leaders did in similar situations.

The second is to serve as a reminder that leadership is not always easy and as leaders we will never make everyone happy. That’s a perhaps uncomfortable, but absolutely critical realization. As leaders we have to make decisions and take action based on the good of the organization, and sometimes that isn’t the easiest or most popular answer.

Go ahead, try the exercise and remember what Carl Jung said,

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

Once again Fortune magazine has published its list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Google replaced SAS Institute in the number 1 slot. There are some pretty impressive stats; companies who have never laid off employees, those with some pretty impressive compensation and incentive packages, and quite a few that are currently hiring. Amongst all that, there are two points that jump out; at least they did for me.

First, where something besides compensation and incentives was mentioned it was that employees are treated as an important part of the team. They feel their input is valued and they have plenty of opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. These companies understand how to help employees realize their own motivation and they are better for that understanding.
The second point concerns me though. In the short write-ups about the companies on the list, the overwhelming subject matter is incentives. Do people really work for Starbucks to get free coffee? Would you be happy at Perkins Coie because they throw frequent parties? Are you ready to drop your current job to work for Autodesk because they let you bring your dog to work? Probably not.

How does Fortune arrive at the determination that these are the best companies to work for? They partner with the Great Place to Work Institute (www.greatplacetowork) which, according to their website, has produced an extensive survey that touches on a wide variety of subjects and issues that affect the workplace. Compensation and incentives are part of that survey but there is much more; I’m impressed with the emphasis on trust. That leads me to believe the results are most likely legitimate and reflect what I would consider the real reasons employees like their companies.

So why does Fortune tout the money, while paying less attention to more important issues? Well they are a magazine and they need readers and subscribers to stay in business. And that brings me to the big question. Since Fredrick Herzberg first published what is known as his Motivation-Hygiene Theory, it is been proven time and again that pay, benefits, working conditions, etc are not motivators. Is that changing? Are such things starting to actually become motivators? The underlying survey would indicate not, but the need to use such factors to capture readership makes me wonder.

Thanks to Fortune and the Great Place to Work Institute for this annual report. For anyone who is serious about leading people and creating great companies like this, please study the websites (the article can be found at www.fortune.com/bestcompanies) and the companies themselves to learn more than the short bit in the magazine.