Leadership Archives - The Darling CEO

May 31, 2021

Top 8 Employee Engagement Books

The Top 8 Employee Engagement Books

Employee engagement is likely something that you have been hearing a lot about, but why is it important? And why should you invest the time to read employee engagement books?

KFC and Chick-Fil-A. Two companies that sell essentially the same thing, chicken. However, these two companies have drastically different success. Chick-Fil-A outearns KFC by almost 4x the amount of revenue with only a fraction of the stores. And to top it off, they are only open 6 days a week.

Why is there such a notable difference in the performance of these two chicken companies? Chick-Fil-A has a culture that focuses on people. They work hard to make sure that their employees are happy in order to make their customers happy.

Just think about any successful business- their success is likely enabled by engaged and empowered employees. Apple? They have enabled and empowered developers to bring revolutionary products to market. Starbucks? They have engaged and empowered employees to deliver an exceptional experience to their customers. Tesla? They have engaged and empowered engineers committed to revolutionizing the automobile industry. Engaged employees make the difference.

Great leaders understand this secret to success and work hard every day to engage and empower their teams.

So how can you develop the skills necessary to achieve this type of success? Check out these employee engagement books that can help you build your leadership skills and grow your business.

The Truth About Employee Engagement: A Fable About Addressing the Three Root Causes of Job Misery

This is a wonderful story about how engaged employees can make or break a business. It also provides very practical advice on how to engage and empower your employees. It’s a an easy read that any leader can benefit from reading!

Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT

There is a lot of misconception about how to engage employees. For example, many companies focus on getting ping ball tables in their breakrooms or hosting weekly Zoom cocktail hours. These things will not make an empowered and engaged workforce. This book does a great job of breaking down what employees truly need in order to be engaged and is a must-read employee engagement boook.

The Non-Obvious Guide To Employee Engagement (For Millennials, Boomers And Everyone Else)

There are significant generational differences in what employees want and need in the workplace. Great leaders understand these differences and work hard to respect these differences. This book will walk you through these generational differences and provide practical ways to enable them. This book also does a great job of dispelling engagement misconceptions that will help you take your leadership to the next level.

The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People

The 5 Love Languages is a bit of a cult classic. It has helped people in marriages and relationships for years understand what their partners value. This book does the same for leaders to understand what their employees need in the workplace. It’s an easy read that sheds light on what employees really appreciate to help empower and engage them.

The Seventh Level: Transform Your Business Through Meaningful Engagement with Your Customers and Employees

Employees experience a lot of noise. This book looks to cut out the noise in order to genuinely connect with your employees. This book is a quick read and provides easy strategies to help form connections and deepen employee engagement. As an added bonus, it also covers customer engagement so you can tackle both holistically.

Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

This was one of the first “business books” I read out of college and it has paid dividends. At the end of the day, people spend more time with their coworkers than they spend with their family. Employees that are able to have fun and enjoy their time together are far more likely to be engaged and have better overall well-being. This easy read reinforces the need for fun in the workplace and provides some great strategies and tactics to make your workplace more enjoyable and engaging.

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

‘Start with Why’ is a must read for any leader. One sure-fire way to inhibit your employee’s engagement and performance is to not tie their work back to a purpose. Working towards a greater good can help inspire the most curmudgeon of employees. Once you are able to enroll employees in “the why”, you will unlock a new level of success. This book helps you do just that.

It’s the Manager: Moving From Boss to Coach

I’m a big fan of all of Gallup’s employee engagement work. They have unprecedented research of what contributes to employee engagement and drive success of organizations. This particular book is great because it helps manager move beyond the archaic style of management to the style that resonates best with today’s workforce. This is a great read for new and tenured managers looking to deepen employee engagement.

These employee engagement books will certainly help you improve your leadership skills, better connect with employees, and enroll them in the greater purpose of the organization.

Do you have a favorite employee engagement book? Leave a comment below and share!

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March 13, 2021

How to Annoy Your Mentor. Avoid These Mentorship Mistakes

Mentoring is great. I get no greater joy than helping someone learn and grow in their career. Some of my favorite memories in my career have been from helping someone move up the ladder and achieve their career goals. There are very few things that are more fulfilling. However, there are things that you can do to annoy your mentor.

Mentoring someone can also be incredibly frustrating. I’ve had my fair share of mentees either intentionally or unintentionally taking advantage of our mentorship relationship which left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Understanding what frustrates mentors can ensure that you have a successful and fruitful mentoring relationship.

Here are a few surefire ways to annoy your mentor aka things to avoid!…

Not Truly Wanting a Mentor

I can tell within minutes of meeting with a new mentee whether they are truly looking for someone to mentor them or they are just doing someone their boss says they should do. If you don’t want a mentor, that is totally okay, but don’t waste your time and someone else’s. That is a quick and easy way to annoy your mentor!

Before you agree or seek out a mentor ask yourself “why?”. What do you hope to gain out of the mentorship? Do you have the time to allocate to the process? Are you able to commit and hold yourself accountable? If you can’t confidently answer these questions, hold off on getting a mentor and wait until the time is right.

Not Having Clear Goals for the Mentorship

I want my mentee to get everything they possibly can out of our mentorship relationship. For that to be the case, they have to know what they want. I’ve had so many people seek mentorship and not really know what they want. Are they seeking guidance in moving up in their career? Are they looking to master the position that they are in? Are they looking to develop their leadership acumen? Without the mentee having an understanding of what they are looking for, it is really hard for me to help them.

Check out this list of questions to ask your mentor!

Now, I’m not saying that I can’t help you identify your mentorship goals, but it really helps if you have at least a high-level understanding of what you are hoping to gain. And if you aren’t quite sure (maybe this is your first mentorship and you don’t really know what to expect), just ask. The sooner that I know, the more that I can help you.

Not Being Flexible

Your mentor’s calendar likely looks like a jigsaw puzzle, carefully and exhaustively pieced together. One of the very few things that your mentor will need from you is flexibility. Not that your schedule is any less important than theirs, but if they are taking the time to mentor you, do your best to make it easier on them schedule-wise. Sometimes this means coming in early for a pre-work coffee or a lunch hour touch-base.

If you need to reschedule, work with them to find a time that works best for them. Try to give them as much time as possible so they have time to move things around. In a nutshell, being respectful and sensitive to their schedule will be greatly appreciated by your mentor.

Expecting a Career Handout

It’s obvious that people seeking out a mentor do so in order to advance their careers or business. That’s a no-brainer. However, one of the most annoying things that you experience as a mentor is coming across a mentee that is only trying to use you for connections. I’ve had a couple of mentees who that think just because they participate in the company mentorship program, they are entitled to a bigger position.

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to use a mentor relationship to move ahead. I’m just saying that your goal should be to develop skills and deepen your network in order to get a promotion, not just expecting one. It’s up to the mentee to own their own career and take charge, not just sit back and wait for something to be handed to them.

Not Being Prepared

One of the surefire ways to annoy your mentor is come to a meeting unprepared. For every meeting that you have with your mentor, you should have two things 1.) an agenda (that you can send over to your mentor before the meeting) complete with questions/topics that you would like to discuss 2.) A status update on any actions taken since the last meeting.

You don’t need to write out a formal proposal, a few bullet points will work just as well. The key is to make sure that you are prepared to make the most of your time together.

Not Taking Action

This one is hands down my biggest pet peeve as a mentor… I’ve had several mentees over the course of my career that have simply not wanted to put in the work to achieve their goals. We would have a good discussion, identify areas of action, and then nothing. The employee wouldn’t take action on what they committed to do. They would say that they got too busy and didn’t have the time, or worse yet, just forget.

Trust me, I get it, life gets crazy. I understand that things come up beyond your control from time to time. However, repeatedly not taking action demonstrates that you don’t really value your mentor’s time or advice. Mentors mentor because they want to help people learn and develop. Therefore, not taking action is a slap in the face for them. Take action every time (even if it is small action) and be the one to communicate that action.

What are your mentoring annoyances? Have you ever done anything to annoy your mentor? Leave a comment below!

How to Hold a Team Employee Engagement Conversation

Wondering how to hold a team employee engagement conversation? You have come to the right place!

Employee engagement is critical to the success of any business. Without engaged employees, you will never be able to meet your full potential. You will be mediocre at best. Study after study has shown that an engaged workforce helps reduce costs, reduces risks, and increases revenue. Yet, so few leaders focus on employee engagement and understand when and how to have employee engagement related conversations with their teams. In this post, we will show you what to look for, know when to have a conversation, and how to have the conversation. We will also take a look at what you should do after the fact and how to ensure that your team feels heard, supported, and ultimately more engaged.

When Should I Have Employee Engagement Conversations?

In short, all of the time. Employee engagement conversations should happen as frequently as other meetings such as operations and sales meetings. Why is that so? Well, who brings the objectives from those operation and sales meetings to life? Employees. And engaged employees can bring those objectives to life much more efficiently and successfully than disengaged employees.

Just reflect back on your own career. When were you the most successful? It was also likely a time that you were the most engaged. Conversely, think about a time when you were the least successful and productive. You were likely disengaged at some level.

By focusing on deepening your employee’s engagement, you are setting them up to work at their peak potential, thereby expediting any goals that you may have.

For example… the company that I work for did heroic things during the global pandemic to help serve our customers. What would ordinarily take months (if not years) to do was accomplished in a matter of days. If we had disengaged employees, that would not have been possible.

If employee engagement enables success, it should go without saying that these conversations should take place much more frequently. A good rule of thumb is to have some type of team employee engagement related conversations at least 1-2 times per month.

How Should I Have Team Employee Engagement Conversations?

So how do we go about having team employee engagement related conversations? It’s actually easier than you think and doesn’t take too much effort. Follow these easy steps to hold an effective engagement conversation with your team.

1. Review the Data

The first step in having an employee engagement discussion with your team begins before the actual conversation. First, take some time to review any employee engagement related data or insights that you may have available. This could include employee surveys or employee comments. When reviewing the data, look for trends and for outliers. What are you doing well? What could be improved? Review the quantitative and any qualitative data to get a holistic picture of what is going on. It’s also helpful to review notes from any past employee engagement discussions. Any insights help you gain a clearer picture of where your team may be in terms of engagement.

2. Schedule the Meeting

Next, let your team member know that you plan on discussing employee engagement with them and schedule the time to do so. Ask them if there is anything that they would like to discuss or make sure is covered. Ask if they have any preference for when and how the conversation is facilitated. Your goal is to make sure that your team feels comfortable and secure in having the conversations.

When scheduling the meeting you should make sure that you have plenty of time. Scheduling an employee engagement discussion for fifteen minutes at the end of a sales meeting doesn’t necessarily scream that you are committed to employee engagement. If you are able, schedule the meeting for 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours. It’s better to have more time than less. On the flip side, anything more than 1 1/2 hours may be too much. Sometimes these conversations can be emotional so too much time can be exhaustive. If you need more time, schedule a follow up.

3. Set the Stage

Before the conversation, share a list of questions or topics that you would like to discuss with the team. This will help the employee prepare and gather their thoughts. It will also allow them to provide feedback if there is something additional that needs to be addressed.

Before the meeting make sure that you ensure that the conversation will be a safe and confidential discussion. Assure them that you are committed to improving engagement and look forward to hearing their feedback and working together to identify ways to help improve team engagement. Don’t assume that your employees know this. It’s important that managers continue to declare their commitment to help the employees feel safe and heard.

4. Hold the Discussion

Now it’s time to hold the conversation. Your role should be to facilitate and guide the employees through the discussion using the prepared list of questions. As a facilitator, you should only be doing 10-20% of the talking. Your employee should be doing the most sharing. Try to keep the conversation upbeat but be empathetic to employee’s concerns and emotions.

Whatever you do, don’t take feedback personally and get defensive. This will cause the employee to shut down and avoid sharing. An employee sharing feedback cares enough to do so. Disengaged employees don’t care enough to share feedback. So as much as it can be difficult to hear feedback, it’s actually a gift. If you find yourself getting emotional, take a quick break and compose yourself.

5. Determine Your Goal & Action Items

Hopefully, the conversation with your team led to some clear goals and actions that could be taken to help improve engagement.

With your employees, decide what your goal should be. It’s helpful to be very specific with what you want to cause. Employee engagement has many components so trying to do too much can lead to ineffectiveness. Be as detailed as possible with what you want to tackle. For example “We would like to ensure that the team members feel supported in their professional growth” or “we will work to cut down on unnecessary processes to help improve productivity”.

Now that you know what you want to accomplish, work with the the team to identify 2-3 steps to help you get there. Use the SMART framework to help you identify actions for you and the team members to complete.

After the meeting, send a summary to the team member and, if applicable, document the action plan. If possible, keep the action plan in a location that is easily accessible to everyone. This will help keep the action plan top of mind and hold everyone accountable to what was committed to.

6. Schedule Next Meeting

Immediately after meeting with the team, schedule the next engagement meeting. The worst thing that you can do is to have one singular engagement related conversation. Engagement is ever-evolving and something that should be discussed often.

Scheduling the next meeting right away will help hold yourself accountable and indicate to your employees that you are truly committed to putting in the work to help them achieve deeper engagement.

There you have it. Just follow these six easy steps to have team employee engagement conversations and you are well on your way. After all, employee engagement is not rocket science, it’s as simple as intentionally listening to your employees, working hard to enable their success, and treating them like you would want to be treated.

What tips do you have for having a team employee engagement conversation? Have you ever had a disastrous engagement conversation? Leave a comment below!