A while ago, I listened to a podcast where Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, and Adam Grant debated whether the recent phenomenon of "quiet quitting" is just employee disengagement by a new name. Recent events have shone a spotlight on a problem that is far from new. People don't want to expend energy in a workplace where they feel uncertain about how to be successful, undervalued in their efforts, stagnant in their growth, and disconnected from their values and a sense of purpose and belonging. This is true now and has been true forever, but now the pandemic and economic uncertainty have brought this to the forefront - forcing us all to look at our short lives and think about how we want to spend our time, seeing new possibilities emerge around flexibility and hybrid work, and shifting our relationships with work and life.
Also, we've all heard that people don't leave their jobs; they leave managers. But we've been asking more and more from our managers, who may be ill-equipped to rise to the occasion. With shifting norms, encouraging people to bring their "whole self" to work, and the crippling mental health epidemic, our managers, now need to deal with challenges only trained therapists are well-equipped to handle. These emerging leaders need far more support and skill to do their jobs in today's workforce than what's currently available for most of them.
As a leader in your company, your job is to provide these managers with a system to support them and provide all of your employees with an engaging environment where their work and lives can thrive. If this seems complicated, that’s because it is. Getting this right will inevitably involve change, and change is really hard. It's easy to set a goal to improve employee engagement scores, reduce turnover, or improve culture, but, as James Clear famously says in his book Atomic Habits, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
Fortunately, we have decades of experience and research on employee engagement to guide us through developing the right systems and habits to help us reach these goals. Gallup’s Q12 boil down to the following critical components of a culture that engages people and inspires them to do their best work:
This is why we've created a system to help managers and team members work together to clarify expectations, plan a path for future growth, and connect to the bigger picture of the company's purpose and values. We call the system My Rhythm, and here's what it can do for you:
Contact our sales team to learn more about this simple system to help your company. This could be the breakthrough your company needs to unlock the potential of your entire team and leapfrog the competition.
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