5-Ways to ‘RAZE’ Your Employee Engagement Scores - #5: "Keep putting on that smiley face!!!"

Five Ways to ‘Raze’ Your Employee Engagement Scores

#5: Keep putting on that smiley face!!!

To put an end-cap on this series we have the final and most important point that a leader can take to heart to make sure that your employee engagement scores remain low year after year. This is to keep putting on that smiley face! There is no way that your staff can tell that you’re being overly enthusiastic during “employee engagement season”.

The “B.S.-OMETER”

The most powerful tool that you as a leader have and can an actually implement, personally, that will have the strongest positive effect on employee engagement scores is Authenticity. Just be real.

People can tell when your thoughts, actions, and words do not match. Call it emotional intelligence, social intelligence, sixth sense, ‘Spidey’ sense, or just a well-tuned “B.S. meter” – your employees can tell that you are being fake. 

They don’t appreciate it. Nowadays most employees and consumers have a very well-tuned and refined “B.S.-OMETER” and can pick up insincerity from miles away.  Also, being inauthentic during this time of year erodes trust in your leadership during the rest of the year.

It’s all about trust.

Susan Tardanico stated in Forbes magazine that when employees work for a leader or manager that they see as inauthentic; they don’t support them willingly because they don’t trust them. It becomes simply a transactional interchange based upon positional power - not the bedrock of employee engagement.  

The longer you avoid the truth (about the leaders’ or organizations opportunities for improvement) the more inauthentic you become according to Valorie Burton – Founder of the Coaching & Positive Psychology Institute. Employees will not trust you as a leader if they perceive you as disingenuous.  

The final way to make sure that your employee engagement scores never make it above room temperature, keep putting on that “smiley face.”

Final Challenge:

Above all, be your real, authentic self. If there are problems, acknowledge them. If YOU are the problem (or you’re seen as the problem), fess up and be open and transparent about needing to improve and ask your employees to help you with that and be supportive. 

Everyone knows leaders are people too and people are not perfect. None of us know all the answers and shouldn’t even try. We all have room for improvement – God knows I do. 

Recipe: a dash of humility, a cup of transparency, a gallon of genuine concern, and a bushel basket full of authenticity will create a culinary leadership masterpiece that will help you connect with your employees and create a better environment for you and them to work and (don’t tell the boss) actually help improve the bottom-line productivity and profitability. 

For more information about helping your leaders, teams, or organization with employee engagement, turnover, and leadership development – reach out and have a conversation with Dr. Dave to see if working together would be a good fit.

About the Author:

David A. Miles, Ph.D. is an organizational leadership and development expert and the Founder & Principal of Dr. Dave Leadership Corp. – A Professional Consulting Firm. Dave helps leaders move from success to significance, helping them build and develop strong leaders, teams, and organizations to improve bottom-line results and profits. Dr. Miles can be found at www.DrDaveMiles.com. The office number is 540-773-8487.