Want to make more money? Engage your people first................................ I was reading my Runner’s World magazine on a recent vacation. In it, David Willey ended his editor’s letter with this quote, “[T]he pursuit of contentment may be the best route to perfection. Not the other way around.” When he wrote this, Willey probably didn’t intend me to think of work. But as I read it, it struck me that most of us overfocus on our most desired outcome—the end result. And, in our tunnel vision, we forget to cultivate the critical success factors that most affect the outcome we seek. For instance, in the accounting profession, we focus so much on client satisfaction and profitability that we miss the all-important role that our people play in affecting both. Willey’s quote reminded me immediately of something David Maister wrote in Practice What You Preach: “[W]hat conventional wisdom forgets is that great client service is itself a product of other things. To get client service, it turns out, you must first energize your people to deliver it.” Maister’s premise is this: When your team members are motivated and engaged, they will deliver exceptional client service, which will then drive increased profitability. To prove his point, Maister surveyed employees in 29 professional services firms around the world to determine how well those employees felt their leaders were doing in living their values, serving their clients, and communicating—essentially practicing what they preach. Maister’s data showed that when employees felt their leaders’ behavior matched their stated commitments, those organizations had higher levels of employee engagement, client satisfaction, and profitability. Maister’s ideas were echoed by Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup, who said, “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.” But we’re not winning in the workplace...................................
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:40:12 +0000