Are CEOs Responsible for Employee Disengagement?

Working with one of my clients late last year, I saw a significant breakdown of a key process. However, unlike many companies, I saw a group rally together to solve the problem without any senior leadership. They didn’t need direction, they figured it out. They didn’t need structure, they solved problems. And within 48 hours the breakdown was fixed by a team, most of whom had no process ownership or accountability. They were just committed to success and highly engaged.

According to Gallup’s latest employee engagement survey, only 13% of the world’s workers are engaged.

So, if 87% of the world’s workers are disengaged, how do I only recruit from the 13%?

Clearly, if we are going to build an engaged organization, we have to build engaged employees. How the heck do we do that?

The only way to build an engaged organization is to establish accountability across-the-board.

We begin by setting aside the blame game. The only way to build an engaged organization is to establish accountability across-the-board. In the end, leadership is responsible for perhaps 25% of engagement and 75% belongs to everyone else. However, most engagement initiatives fail because the accountability breaks down at the beginning.

Your human resources department certainly isn’t going to do it. Here’s why. Many CEOs and business owners will delegate the work to the human resources and tell them to fix the “engagement problem.” Then, they disengage from the program and go back to pleasing shareholders and the market. Your human resources executive starts visiting stakeholders touting the new employee engagement initiative. But, they look past his or her shoulder and see you doing the same thing you’ve always done – having nothing to do with engagement. Surveys often follow and the data is so vast and raw that there is literally no place to start. Managers feel more helpless and in many cases, the human resources leader is seen as failing.

Your mission this week, is to make a decision whether or not you are prepared to lead your organization to a full engagement culture.

Until we build the very skills that help others self-assess continuously, help them become active learners, and, teach relationship and visibility skills, we will only get more of the same.

Let’s begin with your willingness to end the trance. If 87% of the world’s workers are disengaged, that means that most workers are caught in a trance. My colleague David Harder’s new book, The Workplace Engagement Solution, was released by Career Press last August. In it, he proposes that disengagement is rooted in the problem that the human capacity to change was outstripped years ago. Until we build the very skills that help others self-assess continuously, help them become active learners, and, teach relationship and visibility skills, we will only get more of the same.

Full engagement routinely builds category skills. Getting there begins with you. So, here are a a variety of questions for you to answer. Please use whatever “thinking time” you set aside to consider these. You’ll want to have a deep-seated response. In some cases, I’m going to include an explanation with the question. With others, simply write what comes up for you.

1. What is your reaction to the idea of leading your culture? Do you view this as someone else’s responsibility? If so, how is that stance actually producing transformation?

2. If you were to become a better culture leader, what would you need to learn and from whom?

3. If you were to launch an ambitious engagement building initiative in the organization, do you have to build a better team to help you?

4. How engaged is your organization today on a scale of 1-10? What is that score doing to your mission, vision & purpose? Please be specific.

5. If you intend to recruit from the world’s 13% pool of fully engaged workers, how are you going to do that?

6. Describe the kind of culture you need to build to attract these individuals and keep them.

7. Describe yourself as the CEO or owner who creates commitment, enthusiasm, and willingness to do that work of engagement. What is your message?

8. Describe the benefits of full engagement in each significant business area of the organization. Begin with the current state and proceed to the desired state.

The trance is all about going through the motions. I am actually suggesting that you make an informed decision, based on your own truth, if you are willing and prepared to take charge of engagement in your company. If you are not, don’t do engagement. Save your money and don’t waste your time.

Brought to you by Jackson Lynch, President - 90 Consulting

P: (832) 930-7449 / E: [email protected]

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