Fired Up or Burned Out

Michael L. Stallard

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781418567835
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Indisputable evidence reveals that the greatest threat to America's economy isn't off-shoring labor, the need for downsizing, or unethical corporate practices--it's employee disengagement. This widespread malady is the cause of billions of dollars lost, hours of dissatisfaction, and work lives lacking true value. In this game-changing guide, author Michael Stallard shares the three essential leadership actions necessary to transform even a lethargic, disconnected organization or office into an impassioned, innovative, and thriving workplace. By teaching readers what motivates their teams, providing essential tools for effective leadership, and analyzing the methods of twenty of the world's greatest leaders, Fired Up or Burned Out offers everything you need to influence, motivate, and inspire your team to achieve greatness. Complete with a twenty-day learning plan and an assessment that will help you determine the health of your organization's culture, this must-read book provides the key to establishing a happier, healthier workplace that's not only good for business--it's invigorating to the people who make it happen.

PART I

WHAT FIRES US UP?

In Part I you will learn . . .

why a sense of emotional connection is necessary for people and organizations to thrive.

why you need connection to achieve your personal potential and how connection affects your physical and mental health.

about research from sociologists, psychologists, and neuroscientists that increasingly demonstrates the powerful effect of connection on people.

what elements are necessary to create a connection culture (a culture that increases connection among people).

about the stories of two leaders and the cultures they created as illustrations of what a connection culture is and what it is not.

about the basic human psychological needs that are met by connection and some developments in modern organizations that have become obstacles to meeting these needs for most people.

CHAPTER 1
THE CASE FOR CONNECTION AT WORK

One of the most powerful and least understood aspects of business is how a sense of connection among people affects their success in life. Just as the wind moves trees and gravity moves objects, connection is invisible, yet has a very real effect on the behavior of people. I’m convinced that unless the people in an organization have a strong sense of connection—a bond that promotes trust, cooperation, and esprit de corps—they will never reach their potential as individuals, and the organization will never reach its potential.

Employees in an organization with a high degree of connection are more engaged, more productive in their jobs, and less likely to leave the organization for a competitor. Such employees are more trusting and more cooperative, share information with their colleagues, and therefore help decision makers reach well-informed decisions. Organizations that cultivate connection will be more innovative. Connection transforms a dog-eat-dog environment into a sled dog team that pulls together. ¹

So what is connection anyway? When we interact with people, we generally feel that we connect with some and not with others. Connection describes something intangible in relationships. When it is present, we feel energy, empathy, and affirmation; when it is absent, we experience neutral or even negative feelings. Although we know what it’s like to feel connected on a personal level, few among us understand the effect of connection on us and on our organizations.

TODAY’S WIDESPREAD DISCONNECTION AND DISENGAGEMENT AT WORK

The Gallup Organization has done extensive research in this area. The best measure of connection is Gallup’s Q12 survey that asks questions about whether other people in your workplace care for you, help you grow, and consider your opinions and ideas. In 2002 the Gallup Organization published the results of a landmark research study in the Journal of Applied Psychology that tracked nearly eight thousand American-based business units over seven years. Business units with higher Q12 scores—in other words, higher connection—experienced higher productivity, higher profitability, and higher customer satisfaction, as well as lower employee turnover and fewer accidents. ²

Other studies confirm the opportunity exists to improve performance by improving employee engagement. The 2004 study by the Corporate Executive Board that I mentioned earlier concluded that the most committed employees outperform the average employee by 20 percent and are 87 percent less likely to leave the organization. ³ A Hewitt study of fifteen hundred companies over four years showed companies with higher employee engagement realized higher total shareholder return. ⁴

Unfortunately, Gallup research also clearly shows that the lack of connection has resulted in widespread employee disengagement. Results from its Q12 survey consistently indicate approximately 75 percent of workers do not feel engaged or connected at work. ⁵ The 2004 Corporate Executive Board global study of employee engagement revealed even more dismal results: 76 percent of those surveyed had a moderate commitment to their employers, and 13 percent had very little commitment. ⁶

The state of many organizations today is like that of a body builder who exercises only one arm. The result: one bulging bicep and three skinny, underdeveloped limbs. Can any body builder or organization perform at its peak with only 25 percent of its members engaged?

The Gallup Organization conservatively estimates the annual economic cost to the American economy from the approximately 22 million American workers who are extremely negative or “actively disengaged” to be between $250 and $300 billion. This figure doesn’t include the cost for employees who are disengaged but have not spiraled down to the level of active disengagement. ⁷

Widespread disengagement is a waste of human talent and energy. It’s not healthy for employees or employers. People don’t live with this level of frustration forever. When they are able to, many will flee to greener pastures, most likely to leaders and environments that will provide the connection they need, whether to somewhere else in your organization or to your competitor.

THE URGENCY OF CONNECTION

Two megatrends promise to make connection even more important: the coming labor shortage and increasing globalization of labor. In the Americas, Europe, and Asia, birth rates have plummeted below worker replacement levels. ⁸ When more baby boomers retire in a few years, shortages are likely in many segments of the labor market. The numbers are daunting. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a shortfall of 10 million workers by 2010. ⁹ The Employment Policy Foundation projects a shortage of workers within this decade and lasting through much of the first half of this century. At its peak, it is expected that America will experience a shortfall of 35 million workers. ¹⁰ Because workers will have so many jobs to choose from, leaders must understand the impact of the looming labor shortage. They will need to provide a workplace culture that attracts and retains employees or suffer as insufficient labor is available to meet their growth goals.

The coming labor shortage was highlighted in a lead article of the Harvard Business Review. In “It’s Time to Retire Retirement,” authors Ken Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson, and Bob Morison concluded, after a year-long study of the implications for businesses of the aging workforce:

Mass retirement threatens to drain talent from businesses over the next ten to fifteen years.

Businesses will need to attract and retain older workers to meet their human resource needs.

The workplace environment will need to be altered in order to attract and retain workers. ¹¹

The media’s coverage of this megatrend has just begun. The Wall Street Journal, Time, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, and other thought-leading periodicals have recently featured articles on the approaching labor shortage. You can be sure that the noise level will rise to a clamor over the years ahead.

The second megatrend, the globalization of labor, will also intensify the need to engage people at work. Many areas of the economy, such as the financial capital markets, already operate in a global manner. Financial capital easily moves around the world, and the prices of financial assets in one part of the world affect prices everywhere else. Globalization is beginning to happen with labor too.

With the rise of offshoring, globalization will continue in the market for people (or human capital, as economists describe us). Technological advances such as broadband Internet connections and online collaboration capabilities have made it easier for companies to move work and jobs around the globe. China and India have already attracted a large number of jobs from other countries. As this trend accelerates, companies that want to retain jobs in their home countries will need to boost the productivity of their people or lose business to competitors that reduce prices by offshoring.

Many firms will be unprepared for the storms ahead, however. Sydney Finkelstein of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business studied cases of business failure to identify what managers can learn from mistakes of the past, and he noted that they usually knew of the developments in their industry that produced unfavorable change but failed to do anything about them. ¹² The emerging storms from disengagement, an aging population, and globalization could turn out to be issues managers were aware of but failed to act ...