Build meaningful conversations in your organization

Gallup's 2024 Employee Engagement Checklist includes this: Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with their employees.

It goes on to define 5 characteristics of a meaningful conversation:

1) Recognition or appreciation for recent work.

2) Collaboration and relationships.

3) Current goals and priorities at work.

4) The length of the conversation: Between 15 and 30 minutes is enough time for a meaningful conversation, but only if it happens frequently.

5) Employee strengths or the things they do well: Managers can have much more meaningful discussions about how each person gets their work done if those conversations are based on what they do best. The takeaway is that feedback is meaningful to employees when their manager focuses on recognition, collaboration, goals and priorities, and strengths. And if these conversations happen every week, they can be brief. Naturally, problems and challenges will arise — and managers and employees should discuss them — but to improve engagement, managers must have conversations that inspire each individual.

As you have these meaningful conversations, taking communication preferences into account will make these successful and Wiley's Everything DiSC portfolio provides data to help each person adapt to the other's preferences. DM me for more information.

Let's work together to get your team certified in DiSC!

Build your team's ability to engage and get the best from your workforce using the DiSC family of profiles by asking me to lead their certification! DM me to set up a schedule that works for all of us.

Pay Attention to your Managers

From Gallup's 2024 State of the Global Workplace Report:

The hard job of managing people has gotten even harder in recent years.
New demands for worker flexibility in the remote and hybrid workplace and increased risk of employee mental health problems add to the already difficult job of managing. In 2023, Gallup found one in five employees reported feeling loneliness, anger, or sadness during a lot of the previous day, and four in 10 felt a lot of stress.

Managers already have many responsibilities such as carrying out leadership initiatives, keeping up to date with customer and product needs, monitoring time and expenses, performance management, and training. But their role of inspiring people has never been more urgent. They are uniquely positioned to know each employee’s specific needs, career goals and work-life situation.

You can build your managers role awareness, engagement and capacity with the Everything DiSC Management profile either on the Catalyst platform or through traditional training. DM me for more info or a demo.

2023 Wiley Annual Report on the State of the Workplace

Wiley Workplace Intelligence does ongoing research about the state of our workplaces and here are the top 10 takeaways from their 2023 Annual Report:

1. People are optimistic about the future of their organization. In addition, a large majority of respondents also shared that managing the well-being of their people while achieving results continues to be a priority.

2. Communication is the most important quality in a leader. It's clear that there is a need for more communication and relationship building skills in order to increase psychological safety across all organizational levels.

3. Communication has a direct impact on engagement. The frequency and kind of communication in your organization has a direct impact on the engagement, morale, and productivity of your people.

4. Individual contributors feel less safe than executives taking risks at work. A psychologically safe environment as defined by Amy Edmonson of Harvard B-School, is an environment where we feel comfortable taking risks, expressing ideas and concerns, asking questions, and admitting mistakes without fear of negative consequences.

5. Generations have more in common than not. Surprisingly, respondents largely feel understood by other generations regardless of the generation they belong to.

6. Managers lack training on how to manage conflict. Only 57% of managers reported receiving training around conflict management.

7. Upskilling employees fills the widening skills gap. Most organizations in the study didn't have a clearly identified process for identifying current skills gaps. But, almost half (42%) reported that technical skills were the most critical missing "hard" skills with interpersonal skills following at 36%.

8. Where you work doesn't impact organizational culture. Many organizations made a return-to-office push in 2023. There were concerns about the impacts of remote work on organizational culture and many companies moved from completely remote to hybrid models or required a full return to the office. This research found that location doesn’t have as big of an impact as we might expect when it comes to creating a positive workplace culture. Instead, we found that feeling connected and experiencing a sense of belonging is more critical to creating a positive culture than simply occupying the same physical space.

9. AI is not ready to replace humans when it comes to learning and development. Using AI for administrative tasks increases efficiency but knowing people seek human connection when learning, L & D practitioners should consider ways to continue meeting that need while incorporating technological advances into their practice.

10. Well-being positively impacts performance. Balancing employee satisfaction and productivity ranked the highest, and the increased focus on well-being positively impacted performance throughout these organizations.

I have tools to help you maximize each of these findings. DM me for more information or a demo!

Build Engagement and Related Results Throughout your Organization!

Gallup's 2024 State of the Global Workplace reports these key findings:

-20% of the world’s employees experience daily loneliness. Loneliness is highest for fully remote workers.

-Well-being among younger employees dropped in 2023.

-Employee engagement is a significant factor in overall life experiences.

-Managers account for 70% of the variance in team employee engagement.

-Across countries, when managers are engaged, employees are more likely to be engaged.

-In best-practice organizations, 3/4 of managers and 7 in 10 non-managers are engaged.

When organizations increase the number of engaged employees, they improve a host of organizational outcomes, including profit, retention rates and customer service.

There are resources I provide that build engagement which increase employee and manager well-being as well as measurable results like profit, retention rates and customer service.

This graphic provides more specifics - dm me for more information or a demo!

Integrate DiSC into your work culture so build capacity and engagement!

You can create a useful shorthand to make the most of your work relationships by integrating DiSC into your language, and introducing the complete portfolio of DiSC applications builds awareness and engagement throughout your organization. This includes Everything DiSC Workplace, Everything DiSC Management, Everything DiSC Sales, Everything DiSC Productive Conflict, Everything DiSC Agile EQ and Everything DiSC Work of Leaders. It's worth a look and has a high payoff!

How Management has Changed Since Covid-19

In an Oct. 2023 Forbes article, Anupam Satyasheel outlines how management has changed since Covid-10 and how future-minded, thoughtful organizations have embraced these changes:

1. Remote Work and Flexibility. Some companies insisted workers return to the office after the pandemic, but other realized employees were happier, more productive, and more willing to participate in company culture remotely.

2. Emphasis on Employee Well-Being. Managers who genuinely ask how their employees are doing will gain their trust and confidence, and know that employee well-being amounts to company well-being.

3. Digital Transformation. We can't forget that employee are the operators of the increased technology we see. Good management encourages online interactions and creates digital experiences for employees.

4. Remote Team Building and Leadership. In a remote work environment, team bonding is not naturally cultivated. This needs to be an intentional effort by managers to maintain morale.

5. Talent Acquisition and Retention. Hiring and retaining talent has become a different effort because interviewing is often remote and managers don't have the bandwidth to respond to every job application. In terms of retaining talent, managers should be proactive with department and team meetings, check-ins and continuous team building.

Our Five Behaviors Personal and Team Development profiles/facilitated conversations can be done virtually or in-person and create a language and connection that's not easily achieved otherwise. DM me for more info or a demo!

Manage tension with some help

Disagreements at work can be stressful. With Get Advice on Catalyst, you can get immediate online access to ways to navigate tense conversations, build empathy, and turn conflict into compromise. Contact me to learn more! #GetAdviceonCatalyst

Increase your sales using this tool!

Engage your salespeople to adapt their style to their prospects and customers to improve results! Everything DiSC® Sales teaches participants to stretch beyond their natural Sales style to more effectively adapt to their customers’ preferences and expectations— regardless of the customer’s unique buying style. The experience is sales-specific with in-depth information, including tips, strategies, and action plans to help your salespeople become more effective.

The Everything DiSC® Sales Profile focuses on:

• Understanding your DiSC® style

• Recognizing and understanding customer buying styles

• Adapting your sales style to your customer’s buying style

• How to adapt DiSC style to meet the customer’s needs

DM me for more info and increase your organization's sales now!

Build engagement with these helpful profiles

The Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report for 2023 makes this important point: "Employee engagement does not mean happiness. If you are only measuring employee contentment, you are missing engagement. And the reality is that many corporate measures of engagement are really just measuring contentment. True engagement means your people are psychologically present to do their work. They understand what to do; they have what they need; and they have a supportive manager and a supportive team. They know why their work matters. They are work ready." (p. 10)

Having a supportive manager and a supportive team can be built using Everything DiSC® and Five Behaviors® profiles - they develop teamwork, personal awareness and ways to respond to others that keeps engagement and productivity high and tension low. Let me know how I can help your organization!