Keeping Your Employees Engaged – Part 2
In our last newsletter, I told you about Adam.
This week, I’m going to continue to story of Adam. And…I’ll tell you a bit more about my own experience of staying engaged.
New Role, New Life
Adam is based in Israel. He just accepted his new job a few weeks ago. When we spoke this week…Adam really ‘came to life’ as he talked about his new position.
In his previous role, Adam hadn’t been given much responsibility…he hadn’t been ‘trusted’ to do much.
In the new role, he has been trusted to do more.
With this trust, comes some pressure to perform. Some
may not want this pressure, but Adam does. He wants feedback if he’s doing well. He wants feedback if he’s not doing well. He wants to be ‘measured’, because he knows he will do well. Most of all, he wants to be trusted to do his job well.
Do You Trust the Members of Your Team?
Trust is a bedrock need for any human being.
As an example – I need my wife to trust me. I need my son to trust me.
I want them to trust that I’m ‘for’ them. I want them to trust that I won’t abandon them. I want them to trust that I’m going to provide for them.
In my current role as a business owner, my team members trust me. They trust me to treat them fairly, to treat them well. They trust me to reward them for good performance. They trust me to instruct and guide them in their roles.
In previous work teams, I needed the trust of my boss and team members.
Sometimes, I received it…sometimes, I didn’t.
Trust and Freedom
In Adam’s new role, he has a lot of freedom. He sees it as the freedom to be himself and the freedom to succeed.
This could mean freedom to fail also. But – he’s ok with this. He told me that if he succeeds or fails, it will be very clear in his new role.
I’ve been on some great teams and some awful teams in my 30 plus year career in the ag industry. In the great teams, I was trusted and given freedom. I had the freedom to succeed or fail.
On one team, I was initially given freedom. I excelled in many ways. The biggest way that I succeeded was in my sales numbers. I ‘blew the doors’ off the budget in my first 2 years in this role.
There was ‘growing concern’ among a couple of people on the team that I wasn’t doing everything exactly the way that I was supposed to. I was breaking some invisible rules.
As a result, there were ‘new rules’ put into effect and something that showed 10 steps to success in the sales process for this company.
In the next few years of this role, I continued to ‘blow the doors off’ my sales budget numbers. And – I received the largest bonus in my life.
But – at the end of a couple more years, I received a reprimand. The rules of the 10 steps had been violated. This was according to a very rigid, inflexible supervisor. This was in spite of the fact that my average growth year over year for sales was 138%.
I knew I couldn’t stay. I needed freedom to be me. I ‘fled’ and went to a new role in a different part of the industry.
Just like Adam knew that he couldn’t stay in his role.
He needed freedom to be himself.
Freedom is Risky…and Rewarding
Trust your team members. Give them the freedom they need to be themselves.
Is it risky?
Of course, it is. But the rewards can make it worth it.
And…you’ll keep good people engaged long term if you give them the freedom to be themselves and the freedom to succeed.
Engagement Survey
'Want to be proactive in keeping your employees engaged? Thanks to our partnership with Summit SmartFarms, we have a new product to offer. Check out our new Engagement Survey service. We can come to your farm or business and measure a 'baseline' of engagement for you. We can follow up every few months to measure your progress in keeping your team engaged. Reach out to me today to book your engagement survey at brent@agteambuild.com
