iClarify | Simplify | Engage

Look at what messages have gone out before communicating new ones. A huge mistake managers often make is to communicate new messages without reviewing what they've already said on the subject in the past, hoping no one will notice. Imagine how far a politician would get using that approach. Unfortunately, we can imagine it all too well. The mistake is not in forgetting what you've said before; with all the messages coming from the CEO, the website, from various marketing and customer service campaigns, it's no wonder we cannot remember what we said yesterday. However, it is our job to either know or find out exactly how we characterize our messages and what we share, even long after we've shared it. For example, if you tell your team to focus on continuous improvement and then a week later, in a weak moment, yell at someone for taking too much time to reevaluate a process, you'll lose trust and credibility--probably two of the most important badges

Walk around the office and chat one-on-one with people, ask them about themselves, their day-to-day work, their kids, how their weekend was. If you make time to also walk around your corporate office and talk to people individually, they remember that and will cut you a little slack when you’ve got to rush out the door the next time. It also allows you to get to know your people well, what makes them tick and what makes them successful or what makes them do their best. Knowing your people and having a relationship or personal connection with them, however small, allows your organization to want to perform better. Those employees become a lot more willing to go above and beyond the call of duty for you. Just make sure you are consistent. You don't want to be that manager who tries something once or twice and then gets too busy to keep it up.

When you visit other areas of the business, operational units or the field, actively connect with everyone you can. Blowing by other business units in a hurry in your suit and tie with your Blackberry buzzing, but not talking to employees on the way, sends the message that your current business is much more important than they are and that they do not matter.  People understand when leaders and managers are busy; when this happens all the time and you never stop, they start to think you don’t care. When you visit other business units and especially units in the field, try to avoid being too important to talk to them, or only talking to the other managers because you don’t have time. Stopping for a few minutes from time to time, or regularly would be even better, to say hello, shake someone’s hand, or thank them for doing a great job can:  boost an employee’s morale increase engagement and  send a powerful and positive message from you to employees that they matte

Identify and explain your employee value proposition (EVP). An employee value proposition (EVP) is the employment deal or promise that you make to employees the moment they start to work for you. Every organization has one, whether they know it or not. Some EVPs are better than others. By identifying what that promise is, and assuming that it’s good stuff, you can then begin to share it regularly to remind employees of the great things to promise to provide for them.  For example, what are the benefits of working at your organization?   Maybe you’re a small organization and don’t have the revenue to provide big-corporate-style employee benefit programs, but you can offer flexibility in scheduling and recognition programs that provide dividends when you earn them or maybe you can allow employees to bring their dogs to work.  Every part of the employment deal counts, but if they don’t know all about it, you’re missing a vital opportunity. Explaining your EVP to your

Think about how you act everyday; employees learn more about you from your behaviour than they do from your messages. You tell employees that they are important to you, but: You never ask them how their day is going; it’s because of your crazy schedule. You walk by them all the time with your head down, thumbing your Blackberry. You don’t have time to answer their questions or meet with them. If this is the case, you can post messages on your Intranet site and send them all the memos in the world about how important they are to you but because of what you do, but they won’t believe you.  If employees really are important to you, you need to show them, not tell them.  Then, and only then, will they get the message.

Giving employees a way to voice their thoughts, opinions and suggestions about the business has multiple impacts. Offering opportunities for employees to give feedback allow them to: Become more engaged as they feel someone is listening. Come up with creative solutions to operational problems. Share intelligence to which leaders are not exposed. Inform leaders of what employees are thinking and what their needs are. Ignoring employee input makes as much sense as ignoring customer input. If you’ve ever watched the reality show UNDERCOVER BOSS , you’d know that until executives get their hands dirty, it’s difficult for them to run their business well. The show follows high-level corporate executives as they slip anonymously into the lowest level jobs within their companies to find out what their employees really think about the business and to discover/uncover ways to improve the business. It’s tough for leaders to conduct an undercover boss operation in their own organizat