Must Read Summaries - 12 - Rodd Wagner and James Harter

When The Gallup Organization analyzed more than one million employee interviews, it was found there really were only twelve elements which employees needed their managers to provide in order to create a high-performance work environment.

In short, if you want your people to do great things for your organization, make sure you do these twelve things for them.

In summary, there are three key additional factors which affect all 12 elements of great managers:

Taking each of these factors in turn:

1. Compensation or pay packages
   Pay is very difficult to get right because it is such a status-laden and emotive issue. From the perspective of the 12 elements of managing, Gallup research uncovered a few very interesting points:
   • Higher pay does not automatically guarantee higher levels of engagement. To achieve that, other factors will always be involved.
   • Both good and bad employees will generally be equally adamant they deserve a pay rise.
   • Its very easy for there to be unintended negative consequences whenever you try and introduce new financial incentives.
   • People genuinely dont want to paid for doing nothing. They want what they do to have some meaning.
   • A persons level of pay is much more about status than it is ever about paying the bills.
   • Whenever employees compare their rate of pay with their peers, intense emotions can be brought to the surface.
   • In most companies, people love to find out what others are paid but want their own compensation package to be kept private and confidential.
   • The best way to establish feelings of fairness on pay is for established salary criteria to be open and very well understood.
   • Most employees who feel they are generously compensated feel a genuine desire to repay the gesture and deliver exceptional results for their employers.

   Its fair to say that compensation works in concert with each of the 12 elements. Money works as a motivator only when it is combined with all of the non-financial drivers of employee engagement. When workers are considering what they get out of a job, they will certainly start by considering what they are paid but then they will also factor in the numerous and rich psychological benefits of their jobs as well. This suggests efforts made on the parts of managers to create an engaging workplace are just as important as the companys ability to pay for outstanding people.

2. Senior executives
   Before managers can deliver what is expected of them, they first need to feel like they are being looked after personally. This is where the senior executives can impact on the effectiveness of the twelve elements of great managing. Simply put if senior executives want their organizations to perform, they first need to ensure their managers and supervisors are happy in their own positions. This then produces a cascading effect of job satisfaction.
   
3. Doing the right thing for others
   The real paradox of effective managing is those who are best at it dont do it for the money. Great managers work hard to do the right thing for their people. This is almost a spiritual issue which transcends the world of business, irrespective of the personal faith or beliefs of the individual manager involved. The best managers work very hard to help their people excel and thereby often end up creating incredible gains for their respective organizations.

Gallup research suggests the proportion of genuinely engaged workers in the United States is around the 28-percent mark in 2005. That puts the cost of lost productivity at around $300 billion per year in the United States alone. The research also suggests similar figures can be calculated for every country Gallup studies. Its clear, therefore, that companies lose far more money due to employee disengagement than is ever lost to theft or any other factor. In short, managers count and they can have a significant impact on the financial performance of a company.

Great managers often generate sustained profits for their organizations because they make personal connections which are stronger than merely the profit motive. They live to see the results of their work in the lives of each person they are managing. They feel an obligation to enrich the quality of life both professional and personal of their people. And they are willing to invest time in getting that right.

Worker commitment is by no means the sole source of success. Depending on the companys circumstances, it may not even be the most important. Introducing an incredible new product, finding new production methods, managing currency or commodity risks, perfecting an efficient operating model, and many other variables quite separate from personnel strategy can have dramatic effects on the businesss fortunes. But the evidence is clear that the creation and maintenance of high employee engagement, as one of the few determinants of profitability largely within a companys control, is one of the most crucial imperatives of successful organizations. It introduces a powerful edge impossible to replicate through any other channel.

The Gallup Organization Employee Engagement Business Impact Database

Key Points

Let everyone know what is expected of them

Great managers combine individual efforts to create the greatest feasible cumulative results by first ensuring everyone is working towards a common objective. Synchronization produces tangible gains.

Ensure people have all the tools they need

As basic as this may seem, great managers make certain their people have the right tools to do their jobs. When people feel confident the company backs them up, they will generally perform better.

Let people actually do what they do best