A well-known organizational consultant, when asked ‘what is real leadership?’ answers as follows:

    “You can tell when real leadership is happening throughout an organization because the people are fully engaged. More often than not, they go home after a day at work and tell their friends and family ‘I had a Great Day at work.’

    So today, I invite you emerging leaders who may be reading this article, how often do your people end the day with the feeling ‘this was a Great Day at work’ ? If you aren’t happy with your answer, it may be time for you to discover what ‘engagement’ is all about and what it takes to have fully engaged people in your organization.

    So, What is the Definition of ‘Engagement’?

    According to Denison, a consultancy that focuses solely on helping organizations create fully engaged people, Engagement is:

    “The degree to which the individuals in an organization are involved, committed and psychologically invested in their work, their job and their organization. Employee engagement is a good predictor of individual-level outcomes, job satisfaction, loyalty, discretionary effort and job performance.”

    Based on this definition, it’s easy to see why the world’s largest companies are investing serious money in creating High-Engagement Cultures. The simple fact is, fully engaged people give the most and are the key drivers of consistent business success. And, did you know that if your employees are not engaged, your customers will not be either? Looking back at the Jack Welch quote, can you now see the clear connection between Engagement, Customer Satisfaction and Cash Flow?

    OK, So…What Does Engagement Look Like? According to Blessing & White’s famous “X Model”, Engagement occurs when two related things are happening at the same time:

    • The Organization is experiencing maximum contribution from an individual and is a result achieves business success

    • The Individual experiences maximum satisfaction and as a result experiences personal success.

    当被问及“什么是真正的领导力？”时，一位知名公司顾问给出了下列答案：

    “当领导力真正贯彻于一家公司时，你能看出来，因为这里的每个人都完全敬业。他们常常会在下班回家后告诉亲朋好友，‘今天的工作棒极了’。”

    此刻，我要问问你们这些正在阅读这篇文章的未来领袖，你有多少次下班后会觉得“今天的工作棒极了”？如果答案不能令你满意，你也许需要发掘一下“敬业”的含义以及怎样才能让你的公司充满敬业的员工。

    那么，“敬业”的定义是什么？

    根据专门帮助各类组织机构使员工达到充分敬业状态的Denison咨询公司的观点，敬业是：

    “一家组织中的个体对他们的职责、工作和公司的参与、投入以及心理上付出的程度。员工敬业程度是个体表现、工作满意度、忠诚度、决策努力程度和工作业绩的良好预测指标。”

    基于这样的定义，我们很容易理解为什么世界上规模最大的那些公司纷纷投入不菲资金来打造高度敬业的公司文化。实际情况就是，充分敬业的员工会为公司带来最大的贡献，而且是不断获得商业成功的关键动力。那么，你知道如果员工不敬业，顾客也会不满意吗？回头看看杰克•韦尔奇的话，你们现在能清楚地看到敬业、客户满意度和现金流之间的关系了吗？

    好的，那么……敬业看起来是什么样呢？从人力咨询机构Blessing & White公司的著名“x模型”中可以看出，两种相互关联的情况同时出现就是敬业，这两种情况是：

    • 个人对公司作出最大贡献，从而使公司获得商业成功

    • 个人满意度达到最高，从而实现个人成功

    In other words you will find fully engaged people at the point where individual satisfaction and maximum individual contribution converge to create success for the business and success for the people in the business. This ‘sweet spot’ is literally a place where both individual and organization are winning. Turnover is low, growth can be fast and profits can be high. This is truly the “Holy Grail!”

    “OK,” you say, “I’m convinced! Now please tell me, what are the main predictors of engaged people in an organization? In other words, what do I have to do as a leader to have my people fully engaged?”

    According to Denison, the four strongest predictors of employee engagement include:

    • Exciting Vision. Our organization’s Vision creates excitement and motivation for our people.

    • Strategic Direction. There is a crystal clear mission that gives meaning and purpose to our work…a strategic direction fueled by a positive intention

    • Feeling Empowered. Everyone believes that he or she, individually, can have a positive impact on business success.

    • Leaders Actions Match their Words and Values. The leaders and managers practice what they preach: their actions match their words, in alignment with clearly stated Core Values.

    How Will You Know Your People are Fully Engaged?

    As mentioned above, fully engaged people consistently have many “great days at work.” Here is what people in a Blessing & White survey said made a ‘great day at work.’

    • “We do interesting work”

    • “We know how what we do makes a difference”

    • “The work we do satisfies our personal values”

    • “We receive recognition for a job well done”

    • “We are achieving our personal aspirations”

    • “We get to use our unique talents to make a contribution”

    What the Organization Receives When People Have Great Days:

    Also according to Blessing & White’s research, here’s what organizations say about their people when they have ‘great days’:

    • People work hard and willingly “go the extra mile”

    • People are aligned with what the organization needs

    • People overcome challenges, day after day

    • People are always clear about what needs to be achieved

    • People achieve the tangible results that matter to the business

    What does all this tell us about what actually works in the Human Dimension?

    1. Money is almost never the only thing that motivates people. People want interesting work that gives them personal satisfaction, they feel proud of themselves when their contribution is recognized and the have a strong need to connect their work to the Big Picture of the business. When these needs can be satisfied, they will experience ‘a Great Day’ on the job. If your only tool to motivate people is cash, you are going to miss the power of engaged people.

    2. And, when people are in a culture that truly knows how to motivate them and cares about them, they work harder, deal with problems, make it their business to be clear on the objectives, and deliver what the business needs, day after day.

    So, What are the Key Lessons for Emerging Leaders?

    换句话说，当个人满意度和个人贡献最大化重合，从而使公司和公司中的个人都获得成功时，员工就处于完全敬业状态。这个“最佳契合点”确实能让个人和公司都成为赢家。人员流失率降低，增长速度加快，利润攀升。这确实是一种“至臻状态”！

    你们会说：“好的，我相信了。现在请告诉我，能显示公司成员是否敬业的主要指标是什么？或者说，作为领导者，我要做什么才能让自己的员工充分敬业？”

    按照Denison的观点，员工敬业程度有四大预测指标，它们是：

    • 让人兴奋的愿景。公司愿景让员工感到兴奋并给予他们动力。

    • 战略方向。一个非常清晰的使命让人们的工作有意义和目的……一种在积极意愿推动下的战略方向。

    • 感觉充满活力。每个人都相信自己能对企业的成功产生积极影响。

    • 领导人的行为和他们的话语以及价值相符观。领导人和经理人把他们所倡导的东西付诸实践：他们言行一致，而且符合清晰表述的核心价值观。

    你怎样才能知道员工都充分敬业呢？

    如上所述，充分敬业的员工有许多“棒极了的工作日”。在Blessing & White的调查中，人们认为“棒极了的工作日”由下列因素构成。

    • “我们的工作很有意思”

    • “我们知道怎样去做能脱颖而出”

    • “工作实现了我们的个人价值”

    • “我们通过圆满完成工作得到认可”

    • “我们正在实现个人愿望”

    • “我们用自己特有的才能做出贡献”

    当员工觉得工作棒极了的时候，企业有什么收获呢？

    Blessing & White的研究表明，当员工‘过的很棒’时，企业对他们有如下评价：

    • 人们工作努力而且愿意“更进一步”

    • 和企业的需求方向一致

    • 日复一日地克服挑战

    • 总是知道要完成哪些工作目标

    • 取得了对企业意义重大的切实业绩

    通过以上内容可以看出，在人的层面真正起作用的是什么因素呢？

    1. 金钱并不是给人们带来动力的唯一因素。人们想做让自己感到满足的有意思的工作，自己的贡献得到认可时他们会感到骄傲，他们非常需要把自己的工作和企业的整体情况联系在一起。当这些需求得到满足时，他们就会有一个“棒极了”的工作日。如果你激励人们的唯一手段就是金钱，你就会和敬业员工的力量擦肩而过。

    2. 当人们所在企业的文化真的知道怎样给他们动力和关怀时，他们会工作得更努力，会去解决问题，会主动弄明白自己的目标，还会带来企业所需要的东西，每天都会如此。

    那么，对未来领袖来说，要了解的关键问题有哪些呢？

    1. Find out what motivates your people. They are all different and need different things in order to be satisfied, because they have unique personal values. Don’t assume that ‘everyone wants the same things’ because they don’t. How do you find out what they want: ask them, and listen. Find out what “success” means for each person and harness that power for mutual benefit

    2. Learn how to create a compelling Vision that excites people. When you are in touch with what people actually care about, and they are also in touch with their definition of success, it’s not hard to create an exciting vision together. The best way to do it is to get them in a room and facilitated a Shared Vision exercise so that the final vision is not ‘the boss’s vision’ but “Our Vision.’ If it’s not exciting ask them to make it more exciting. Your job as a leader is to make sure that the Vision truly lights people up.

    3. Communicate the mission at every opportunity.Mission? Yes, the Mission is to achieve Our Shared Vision! Become a storyteller and tell lots of stories that bring the Vision and Mission to life. Use examples of fully engaged people who are having a lot of “Great Days” implementing strategies that move us closer to the Vision.Make the purpose of the organization crystal clear for everyone.

    4. Create a culture that unleashes the potential of engagedpeople to deal with real issues in real time. In other words, let go of ‘command and control’ and allow people to learn from their own experience.Stop micromanaging and learn a new way of being important. ‘Empowerment’ means ‘the power is inside the person, not outside.’ In that case, give them the power, let them learn from mistakes, recognize them for their successes and discover what happens when people start experiencing the satisfaction that comes from personally making a difference for the business.

    5. Communicate the Core Values of your organization and then live by them. If you are frequently out of integrity with your stated core values, everyone is going to know it. You have no credibility with your best people. And your worst people will make themselves carbon copies of you, spreading your incongruent behavior far and wide. Violating this rule has led to the destruction of many businesses. Make sure you ‘walk your talk’ all day, every day.

    I’d like to leave you with a final quote from engagement consultants Blessing & White:

    “Engaged employees stay for what they give (they like their work); disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security).”-Blessing White’s The State of Employee Engagement 2008

    See you next time, in the Human Dimension, where we will dive still deeper into what Blessing & White call “The Engagement Equation.”

    1. 找出哪些东西会给员工带来动力。员工各不相同，需要不同的东西来得到满足，因为他们都有独特的个人价值。不要假设“每个人都想要同样的东西”，因为情况并非如此。了解他们需要的方式是：询问并且倾听。了解“成功”对每个人都意味着什么，并且利用这种力量让双方受益。

    2. 了解怎样创造一个有吸引力的愿景来激励员工。当你去了解员工真正关心的问题时，他们也会发现自己对成功的定义，大家共同创造一个令人兴奋的愿景并不难。这样做的最佳途径是让大家坐在一起并进行一次寻找共同愿景活动。这样，最终的愿景就不是“老板的愿景”，而是“我们的愿景”。如果这个愿景不能让人感到激动，那就让他们把它变得更激动人心一些吧。作为领导人，你的工作是确保公司愿景确实能让人眼前一亮。

    3. 一有机会就和员工就使命问题进行沟通。使命？没错，使命的作用是实现人们的共同愿景！要成为一个会讲故事的人，而且要通过讲许许多多的故事让愿景和使命变得活灵活现。举一些充分敬业员工的例子，讲讲他们有许多“棒极了的工作日”以及他们执行的策略如何让企业更接近其愿景。让每个人都对企业的目标一清二楚。

    4. 建立一种文化来释放敬业员工的潜力，让他们及时处理实质性问题。换句话说就是，放弃“命令和控制”，让员工从自己的经历学到东西。停止微观管理，掌握发挥重要作用的新方法。“赋予动力”的意思是“人的内在动力，而非外在”。也就是说，让员工获得动力，让他们从错误中汲取教训，认可他们的成功，当他们开始体验因他们个人为企业带来的变化而产生的满足感时，看看会出现什么样的情况。

    5. 就企业的核心价值跟别人进行沟通，并身体力行。如果你频繁脱离你所描述的核心价值，大家就会看到这一点。在企业的最佳员工看来，你就毫无信誉可言。最差的那些员工就会效仿你的做法并且大范围地扩散你自相矛盾的行为。违反这一规律已经毁了许多企业。确保自己时时刻刻都“言出必行”。

    最后，我还想引述Blessing & White公司的一句话：

    “敬业员工会为自己能付出什么留下来（他们喜欢自己的工作）；不敬业员工会为自己能得到什么留下来（有利的工作环境，成长机会，工作保障）。”——Blessing White《2008年员工敬业程度报告》

    下次，我们将就人的层面，更深入地探讨Blessing & White所说的“敬业方程式”。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie