For the last two decades, I’ve been studying positive psychology and employee engagement, spending time with those who are ‘thriving at work’.
I’ve interviewed employees who are experiencing feelings of vitality and energy. I’m talking about employee engagement in its purest sense – your work colleagues who are more likely to agree with statements such as, ‘I eat, live, and breathe my job’, ‘At my work, I feel bursting with energy,’ and ‘I find the work that I do full of meaning and purpose’.
Safe to say that we all want to feel like that! Plus, your organisation needs more of these people. BUT, the world is conspiring against us. In fact, the modern world is trying to knock the engagement out of us!
Our view is that the brave new world requires a rethink and an injection of mojo-enhancement. So here are three ‘classic’ workplace behaviours that are preached by almost everyone, except the Art of Brilliance team:
First up, bin your organisational values. Those bold statements that light up your website and office wall, get rid. Because nobody lives by organisational values, they live by their own values.
Service level agreements, ditto. Martin Luther King got it just about right. How did he start the civil rights revolution? Did he stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and wave a sheaf of papers, ‘I have a set of service level agreements and a strategic plan’? Err, no. His impassioned ‘I have a dream…’ speech brought to bear three things: connection, potential and purpose. Dr King started a civil rights movement by articulating a dream. The good doctor had a passion for doing the right thing and living by a set of personal values.
Second, when it comes to setting goals, too many teams get bogged down with SMART. If ever an acronym needed a makeover, it’s this one. SMART objectives are the Bridget Jones knickers of goal-setting. If you want to kill the passion in your team, set them a target that is like last year’s, but just a little bit higher. #Yawn!
If you want to be truly world class, we advocate that you go against the tide of traditional management thinking and set massive goals. We call them huge unbelievably great goals, or HUGGS. A HUGG is something that is currently out of reach – you have to grow, innovate and engage in order to achieve it. A HUGG is on the edges of achievability but it’s not out of sight. It might be that you only get halfway there – but your achievements will reach far beyond ‘a little bit better than last year’. A HUGG isn’t something to be afraid of – it’s something to aspire to.
If you thought one and two were controversial, brace yourself for the third ‘classic’ that needs consigning to the bin. Somewhat counter-intuitively, we strongly advocate that you start putting your customers second. Yes, second! Your work colleagues must always come first, because that way they’ll put the customer first. It’s nigh on impossible to have inspired customers if you haven’t got inspired staff.
Which brings me full circle, back to Martin Luther King…