June, 2014
By Anna Pinder
As the marketplace heats up and companies compete for talent, keeping employees engaged is critical to success. There are many different engagement programs out there, but they can also be expensive. Here’s one quick win that requires zero investment in capital, only takes a few seconds out of your day, AND has the potential to reap great rewards: Tell someone you work with how they’ve had a positive impact on you. Better yet? Share what you admire about them. Sounds pretty touchy-feely, right? Well yes, it is, but picture this situation:
A couple of weeks ago one of your company’s top performers, Linda, announces that she is moving to another state and as a result changing jobs. The reasons are completely personal- Linda wants to move closer to home to help take care of her ailing parents. Now fast forward two weeks.
You’re throwing Linda a going away party, and everyone from her department crowds into the conference room for cake and well-wishes. One by one people walk up to Linda and say how much she’s meant to them, the impact that she had on their professional or personal lives, and the talents that she has that they really admire in her. What an awesome feeling to have all of these people sharing all of these kind – and truthful- words. Linda walks out of the office on her last day feeling sentimental, a little teary-eyed, and thinking about how much she’s going to miss all her co-workers.
As she’s driving the U-Haul truck cross-country she starts reflecting on what people said and thinking “I never knew that Bob got so much out of our weekly one-on-one’s, maybe I should have done that with more of my teammates?” or “I had no idea how useful my presentation on the new product had on the sales department and their ability to cross-sell. That was pretty easy to put together and was a lot of fun- what if I’d done that for all our new product launches?” Linda learned so much on her last day about strengths others valued and the impact her day to day work had on others – and the bottom line.
So, why wait until someone’s last day to share all of that? Instead, why not take a few minutes, or even seconds, out of each day to tell someone – peer, boss, direct report – about the impact that they’ve had on you or something that you admire about them. It will give you a warm and fuzzy feeling, but more importantly it may open the recipient’s eyes to skills they didn’t realize they had and get them more engaged. As an added benefit, it could really make a difference to a group’s performance or a company’s bottom line. Why not do it today?