I know from my own experience that most owners and managers are head down busy. I know they employ good people and trust them to get on with the job they were employed to do. HOWEVER, if we don’t take the time to talk to our people; to find out how they are going in the job (particularly people who have been with us for a while) then pretty soon passion and motivation fly out the door. Our people arrive at work and simply go through the motions. They become drones because unwittingly, we treat them that way.

There are enough studies to show that massive swathes of our staff are disengaged. According to Gallup research, an astounding 70 percent of U.S. employees are not showing up to work fully committed to deliver their best performance. Adding insult to injury, they suggest that 52 percent of those workers are basically sleepwalking through their day, and 18 percent of them are busy acting out their unhappiness.

79% quit because they are not appreciated yet happy employees are 12% more productive! So if you sense that your people are not as engaged or passionate as you would like them to be, check out the 10 reasons why that is. Be brave – they can ALL be fixed!

1. They were employed and given no explanation of your company vision or values
2. They were employed for one set of skills, but no-one ever tried to discover what other skills or talents they have
3. They receive no feedback from anyone on how well (or not) they are performing
4. They have no idea how what they do contributes to the big picture
5. Their job is boring and repetitive
6. They never get asked for their ideas as to how the job could be done better
7. They attend meetings where only one person gets to speak and there is no involvement of the other meeting attendees
8. They don’t feel valued
9. There is no development plan for them
10. Whether they do a good job or a mediocre job doesn’t seem to make any difference – no-one seems to care

REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE PAYING THESE PEOPLE!! Their salaries and wages directly affect your bottom line.  If this was a machine or piece of technology that wasn’t working to capacity you’d call in someone to fix things immediately! So work out which of the 10 points above seem most relevant, and FIX THEM!

For example – the first thing you could do TOMORROW is to tell each person in your team what they do that you really value and appreciate!! No organisation can function without staff. If we don’t treat our people well then sooner or later the good ones leave and the mediocre ones stay. Then our results become mediocre also. Think about that and remember …

‘People will forget what you did, they’ll forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.’ – Maya Angelou

My latest book ‘Leaders Behaving Badly: What happens when ordinary people show up, stand up and speak up’ is now available in Kindle version for the princely sum of US$3.99.

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