When is too much engagement focus a bad thing?
We spend a lot of time supporting our clients to drive higher engagement and alignment because companies understand that employee engagement is a catalyst for delivering business outcomes.
We are passionate about engagement because experience (and research) tells us that when people feel connected to the purpose, vision, goals, and the leaders, companies get genuine desire, commitment, passion, innovation and accountability and employees get belonging and satisfaction.
However, too much leadership focus on engagement is not always a good thing. There must be a balance between engagement and performance.
Employee engagement drives success.
Take this example. We worked with a senior manager who had sky high engagement results. Not just in the culture survey (which we don’t recommend placing too much emphasis on – read our article here), but evidenced by other more tangible measures. Working for her was a dream. She was a leader who was authentic and emotionally intelligent in all quadrants. She knew that driving high engagement was key. However, the team’s output and ability to meet its KPIs had started to drop. The leader, who was very outcome driven, was concerned and didn’t know why this was happening. Shouldn’t she be reaping the rewards of such high engagement?
The problem was a loss of balance. There was so much focus on engagement and creating an inclusive environment, that the focus on performance got lost.
If you have the balance right, your teams will start the day with a sense of purpose and end the day with a sense of achievement.
In our discussions, she revealed that she was concerned about retention, panicked that people would leave with a rise of external opportunities, that it would be near on impossible to replace people at least not quickly, and that if someone left, she would be asked to not replace and deliver a saving. Her solution was to over invest in making sure it was a place no one would ever want to leave and back off the "performance pressure". It was the right thinking with the wrong emphasis and it came at the cost.
In our endeavour to be great leaders, and create an amazing culture, we must remember that an integral part of that story is performance.
We have all worked for a leader who just drove results, and couldn’t give a rats about engagement or how you felt, why you were there or what was in it for you. We definitely don’t want that!
And we’ve also worked for a leader who “fake cares” about engagement. They are essentially fake leaders going through the motions. The problem with fake caring (aside from the obvious) is that it creates confusion when the experience in the workplace doesn’t match the message. This LinkedIn article on fake leadership traits is worth the quick read. We definitely don’t want this either!
And then there is the case of the example provided earlier. When a leader gives so much attention to engagement that performance tanks, the people who are achievement focussed will disengage. You get the opposite. Remember, high performers thrive in environments where outcomes are a focus.
It is true, working on engagement builds a necessary foundation for driving outcomes, but if you focus on engagement at the exclusion of driving performance, you will not get better outcomes. The two are intrinsically connected.
Reach out if you would like to discuss initiatives to drive an effective balance of engagement and performance for your culture and leaders.
