CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

COACHING FOR ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION

By Beverly Kaye and Beverly Crowell

Companies around the world are spending millions to ask employees how they feel about work. Are you satisfied? Does your boss communicate with you daily? Do you support the company’s mission and values? These questions and others are a way to gauge employee engagement and are often a starting point for helping leaders understand their unique employee engagement and retention challenges.

Unfortunately, many of these same companies get the data, develop action plans, check off the “to do” list, and move on without ever really changing how employees feel about their work, their boss, or the company for which they work. As we move from tough economic times into calmer waters, employee engagement and retention need to be more than just a survey. It needs to be a sustained one-on-one effort to get at the heart of what really matters to employees.

After the money is spent to complete the survey, these same companies ask leaders to generate action plans that will sustain an engaged and productive workforce. These action plans generally create new programs, resources, changes in policy, and some measurable, short-term victories. What they often don’t create is a change in the leader’s behaviors.

In truth, it often looks like what happened at one manufacturing company. Employees cited lack of career development opportunities in the company as a key disengagement factor. The senior leaders assembled a cross-functional team to address the problem. As a result, a state-of-the art career resource center was created for employees. It was decorated with posters promoting “learn, grow, and develop.” It boasted the latest in technology and access to an online university. It was highlighted in the company newsletter and heralded in all-employee meetings. Employees heard the great news and acted. As told by one employee, “I asked my boss if I could go to the center to research career opportunities and was told, ‘You don’t have time for that right now. I need you to get the work done at your desk.’ Imagine how engaged I felt after that comment. It was another failed promise.”

For this leader and many like him, engagement and retention were defined as the annual employee satisfaction survey and the “tedious” action plan that had to be created as a result. Nowhere along the way did the leader get the message that he needed to change his ways. What he failed to realize is that all the best plans can and will fall short if they aren’t supported and that he has far more influence over engagement than he ever realized. Here’s where coaching for engagement and retention can create a sustained and measurable difference.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, disengaged workers cost the U.S. economy more than $300 billion annually. The task of reengaging those who “quit and stay” falls on the shoulders of the leadership and management team. Although many leaders know the importance of engaging their talent, the “how” is often a short-term solution for what must be a long-term effort. Coaching for engagement and retention reduces the risk and empowers leaders in any organization to tap into their employees’ discretionary effort and bring that energy into the workplace. When the coaching relationship is directed at these issues, it helps leaders find simple yet meaningful ways to engage their talent beyond the everyday distractions.

Engagement coaching is not unlike other coaching disciplines. Its difference is in understanding the key drivers of engagement, trends, research, and strategies to create a sustained change in workplace satisfaction. Engagement coaches are passionate about people and relationships. They have a strong understanding of the company’s culture, policies, and procedures. Over time, they have built the trust and rapport of leaders and employees resulting in strong relationships. They have keen evaluative and analytical skills, the ability to listen for what lies beneath the surface, to develop and ask probing questions to understand engagement challenges, strong follow-up and feedback skills, and an understanding of available tools, resources, research, and their applicability with each person they coach. Above all else, they are passionate about developing other great engagement coaches in the leaders they grow.

Engagement coaches begin by understanding the unique employee engagement and retention challenges of each leader. The work initially is done through the leader, not directly with individual employees. If employee engagement, satisfaction, or culture surveys are readily available, the coach can work with the leader to study the results and identify key issues and opportunities. These surveys provide a great place to begin analysis as individual leaders learn about the engagement needs of their team. It is only a start, however. The true value comes from frequent conversations with every member of their team. Surveys set the tone, but it’s the conversations that set the direction.

Employee surveys may not always be available to help the engagement coach. In those cases, there are some warning signs to look for as well. According to the Saratoga Institute, 80 percent of turnover is directly related to unsatisfactory relationships with the boss. In addition, research by the authors of Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay found that most retention factors are within the control of a manager. If a leader’s turnover is increasing, employee complaints are up, productivity or quality are down, or people are talking, it may just be the right time for an engagement coach to step in.

Why? Employee engagement data and research continue to promote a very simple message: employees want a relationship with their leader. They feel engaged by their work and cared for by their organizations when they are able to have open, honest, two-way conversations about their ideas, careers, motivations, and challenges. They need leaders who listen to their perspectives, offer their own points of view, and provide encouragement, guidance, and opportunities. If individuals feel heard, understood. and valued by their leader, they commit more of their energy and enthusiasm.

Despite this knowledge that most leaders already have about the importance of their role, many find reasons why it won’t work or why they simply “can’t find the time” to invest in a relationship with their employees. Coaches must help their leaders realize that lack of time isn’t what’s getting in their way—they are. Engagement builds or diminishes in every interaction between leader and employee. So, it’s often not just about doing more, but doing it with purpose. Purposeful engagement, simply put, is the ability to focus on every interaction with an employee as an opportunity to build a positive relationship. It’s the realization that you don’t necessarily have to do more to engage your employees, but you need to commit to the right actions that meet the engagement needs of each employee right where they are. You can do so by treating every interaction as an opportunity to build that employee relationship. Let us not forget, unsatisfactory relationships with the boss are a key driver of turnover. Imagine the change if leaders paid attention to their employees and learned that “it’s all about me” means it’s all about the employee. With that said, here’s the challenge: employee engagement is an individual activity. There can be no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Every employee has values, needs, and motivations that are unique to him or her. The only way to learn these motivations is to travel down the road of discovery with each and every employee.

How do leaders discover their employees’ motivations? The answer is deceptively simple. They ask and then they ask some more. It’s called an engagement conversation. Engagement conversations are very different from the performance conversation leaders are already having at least twice a year with their employees. Good engagement conversations can feel like you’re “peeling an onion” to get to the true motivations of each employee. The following points reveal the difference between engagement and performance engagements.

Engagement Conversations

• Emphasis on employee’s career, motivators, satisfaction
• Initiated by the leader or often the employee
• Focus on the now and the future
• Leader’s role is supportive and understanding coach
• Employee’s role is to identify motivators and factors for job satisfaction
• Employee motivation often improves

Performance Conversations

• Emphasis on performance goals
• Initiated by the leader on scheduled timetable
• Focus on the past
• Leader’s role is evaluative superior
• Employee’s role is to understand and meet organizational goals
• Employee motivation varies with evaluation

Success of the engagement conversation often hinges on the authenticity of the leader. Leaders who are already disengaged themselves may find it hard to focus on the motivations of their employees, instead asking, “What about me?” What about me, indeed? If the leader’s engagement is not being tended to as well, employees may find themselves the victim of an unhappy boss. Coaches can conduct an engagement conversation with the leader first to model the process and learn about their current job satisfaction. Coaches may need to work with the leader first to reenergize the job and encourage them to ask for what they need from their boss. Disengaged leaders will find it more difficult to be advocates for their employees.

After the conversations begin, an engagement coach can serve as a resource to generate ideas based on what leaders are learning in their conversations and interactions with employees.

An employee wants more opportunities to learn and grow? Consider the following:

• Conduct a career conversation to learn more about their unique skills, interests, and values. Offer your perspective, discuss trends and options, and codesign a career action plan.
• Link people to others inside or outside the organization who can help them achieve their professional goals.
• Take time to mentor your employees. Share your success stories and failures. Teach organizational realities and let your employees mentor you too.

Another employee doesn’t feel valued by you or the organization? Build loyalty by trying the following:

• Recognize employees for a job well done. Offer praise that is specific, purposeful, and tailored to each employee.
• Notice your employees. Pay attention as you walk down the halls and say hello to them by name.
• Get honest feedback. Get a clear picture of how you look to others. Do you have any high-risk behaviors that may be getting in the way of your efforts?

All your employees want to work in an environment that they love. Try implementing some of the following:

• Have fun at work. Do something new or different, or create an environment where it’s okay to laugh and smile.
• Show enthusiasm for what you do; it will encourage others to do the same. Disengaged leaders will have a tough time engaging their employees.
• Values define what we consider to be important. The more employee values align with their work, the more they will find it meaningful, purposeful, and important. Ask your employees, “What makes for a really great day?” or “What do you need most from your work?”

So much of coaching for engagement revolves around common-sense approaches to good leadership. Alas, common sense is often uncommonly practiced. The coaching partnership can do more than provide insight to leaders; it can also be the motivation leaders need to do what they know should be done. Leaders with engagement coaches often remark that it’s the coaching that reminds them to put these common-sense strategies into practice. Here are some examples of the actions leaders in one organization implemented:

• Established the eight-foot rule with all employees. Any time the leader came within eight feet of an employee, he was committed to engaging him or her in a conversation, even if was a brief hello and “How are you today?”
• Helped a “disengaged” direct report open up about real concerns, which led to productive career discussions about future options, and receptivity to performance improvement ideas in the short run.
• Conducted a series of relationship-building phone conversations with remote employees, combined with intentional in-person get-acquainted meetings when on-site to build trust and rapport with new direct report staff.
• Conducted monthly debrief conversations after each closing period, to identify what went well and what could be improved about the closing process for the next month.
• Created motivational Monday morning e-messages to his group as a way to get the week started positively. Leader received many compliments from the team for doing this.

Success happens when leaders assume the role of engagement coaches in their organizations. Though leaders can be the catalyst for good engagement and retention, it’s the employee who must step up to identify what actions they can take to find more satisfaction in the workplace. Leaders with a good handle on engagement can empower employees to take control of their workplace satisfaction.

Engagement and retention are critical in today’s workplace. The coaching relationship goes beyond what a coach can do to help grow the leader, but to what they can do to help grow the organization. It’s an ongoing process with no final destination. The good news—if done and done well, coaching for engagement and retention can create leaders who think of their talent first and employees who truly commit to bringing the best of their capabilities to the organization.

EXHIBIT 17.1 A PROCESS FOR ENGAGEMENT COACHING

Step 1: Meeting Preparation

• Identify the possible problems or warning signs, get your notes together, and, if possible, ask the leader what they hope to get out of the session before you meet.

Step 2: The First Meeting

• Select a neutral, private location and plan at least one hour for the session. First session should be in person.
• Turn off all electronic devices.
• Explain the overall purpose and process the coaching relationship.
• If using data or other information, share it with the leader and ask what they want to get out of the sessions.
• Ask questions to understand leader’s engagement or employee engagement challenges. Tip: Read Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay by Dr. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans for tips and strategies.
• Listen for and celebrate the things that are going well. Identify engagement challenges and goals.
• Identify possible tools, resources, or actions to assist leader.
• Clarify actions, deadlines, and set follow-on meeting.

Step 3: Follow-On Meetings

• Check in with the leader’s commitments from the previous session.
• Discuss lessons learned, success stories, other opportunities, and possible next steps.
• If a commitment has not been completed, lead the leader to awareness that a commitment has been broken and encourage them to follow through.
• Identify additional engagement challenges and goals.
• Identify possible tools, resources, or actions to assist leader.
• Clarify actions, deadlines, and set follow-on meeting as needed.

Beverly Kaye is the founder and CEO of Career Systems International, and a best-selling author on workplace performance. She has worked with a host of organizations to establish cutting-edge, award-winning talent development solutions. Her books include Up Is Not the Only Way; Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay; and Love It, Don’t Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work.

Beverly Crowell is principal consultant and founder of Crowell Consulting, and is a recognized expert and speaker in the fields of talent management, strategic business planning, and professional development. Beverly is also a senior consultant for Career Systems International (CSi), providing expertise in the areas of career development, employee engagement and retention, and coaching. Beverly authors a weekly blog and is a contributing author to The Talent Management Handbook.