Ep 043: Patrick Lencioni with Karen Wells

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SUMMARY:

Employee engagement and staff culture are hot topics in leadership circles right now. This is due, in part, to the insights and books written by our podcast guest, Patrick Lencioni. In the early 2000s, Lencioni broke onto the scene with a simple premise: The human side of work is the most significant driver of business performance, having a greater impact than statistics or strategy. In this episode, Patrick sits down with business leader, Karen Wells, to explore the keys to increasing employee engagement in our organizations in order to drive results and make work more fulfilling.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• I developed a passion to make work better for people by watching my dad’s frustrations with management at his work.
• I’ve met a lot of senior executives and professional athletes who have great jobs but are miserable.
• There’s a strong correlation between having engaged employees and making money.
• All employees want to be known, relevant and measured.
• Anonymity:
  • If an employee doesn’t feel like their manager truly knows them, they are not going to love their work.
  • If you haven’t gotten to know your employees, be vulnerable to admitting your mistakes.
• Irrelevance:
  • All human beings need to know that their work makes a difference in someone’s life, large or small.
  • A manager’s job is to remind someone again and again how their job is impacting someone else’s life.
  • Nobody ever gets tired of hearing how much their work impacts others.
• Immeasurement:
  • Immeasurement is not about numbers; it’s about the ability to gauge for yourself if you are succeeding.
  • The best kind of work is when you can say: I did a great job, and here’s the evidence.
  • Employees often know better than their manager about what it takes to succeed.
• Helping employees feel known, relevant and measured is the least expensive and most effective form of motivation.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. Patrick said that that all employees want to be known, relevant and measured. Think about your current job. In what ways do you feel known, relevant and measured in your current relationship with your manager? What changes would help improve your engagement?
2.  If you manage others, in what ways do you think your direct reports feel known, relevant and measured? What barriers do you face in helping improve their engagement?
3. What is one next step you could do this week to improve your engagement with your employees?

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Forbes Magazine

Fortune Magazine

Southwest Airlines

Chick-fil-A

San Antonio Spurs

NFL

Nike

RELATED LINKS:

Patrick Lencioni

The Table Group

The Truth About Employee Engagement

Karen Wells

The Global Leadership Summit