You know the idea of Murphy's Law - if anything can go wrong, it will. Well I was thinking of it, in relation to business leaders and employee engagement. Here is my take on the old adage
- The more you try and control the conversation, the less likely it is, that there is a conversation.
- If you believe the employees cannot be trusted with social media, you are creating a culture that will be hurt my social media
- The more money you throw at employee engagement, the less engaged the people will be....happier maybe in the short term but not necessarily engaged. Do you think Google employees are engaged because of the free meals or because they believe they have a chance to make a difference (and a freedom to make that difference)?
- The more personality you show as a brand, the less personable you will be to the masses. (However, the more personable you will be to your niche audience)
- Opening the dialogue, opens the floodgates....but I would rather be ready with my waders than marooned on my own!
- Engaged employees are harder to deal with - they give more, but then expect more from the leadership. They are demanding - they want to achieve more. To keep the 'followers', a leader needs to keep further ahead.....the motivation switches from you having to motivate disengaged employees, to motivating yourself to stay ahead as a leader of people.
- The more you put in place simple measures of engagement, the more complex you will realise engagement is....However, ALL engagment CAN be measured.
Employee engagement occurs when you have people who are motivated to come to work, and understand how they are part of achieving the strategy. They know how they fit into the whole picture, they know that they will be recognised and valued for their unique contribution.
Murphy's Law No 8 says the more you do at a corporate leve,l the less likely people will feel it at the individual level.....think personalisation for identity with the overall corporate brand.
