A recent Gallup poll found that 70% of U.S. employees are disengaged at work. Worse, 18% of employees are actively disengaged, a mindset that can undermine teamwork and goals. Disengagement can take a toll on the workplace, customer relations, and profits. While countless sources offer magic bullets, there’s only one factor that truly results in employee engagement. That’s the power of community. And it’s up to leaders to build a work culture based on community. To quote leadership expert John Maxwell, “Leadership is influence.”
In a true community culture, everyone feels supported, encouraged to take the initiative and grow, and stay accountable to each other. These three key factors: support, encouragement, and accountability, are reinforced when the transformation is led from the top. Here are six effective ways leaders can build a culture of true community — engage employees, wow customers, and achieve your business goals:
1. Value Others
Leaders set the course for workplace transformation by demonstrating first that they value others. They believe in every employee as a human, not a number. They invite and value employees’ opinions and ideas, and are invested in helping people grow. The approach is a game-changer, paving the way for mentoring and coaching that can better align employees’ goals and values with that of the organization. It also supports human-scale interactions, regardless of the organization’s size.
Microsoft, an enormous organization of over 120,000 has all new hires do a 30-minute “Who Am I” presentation of their dreams, goals, strengths, and life story. It’s an effective step that helps them feel valued as individuals from day one.
2. Pursue Champion Connections
All business is about relationships. Successful leaders create an inner circle of trustworthy, talented allies. Developing a great team marked by mutually beneficial alliances has a ripple effect throughout the whole organizational culture. Friendship is the building blocks of community, after all. It’s a way to planting the seeds for a great workforce with mutual appreciation at its core, and an invaluable investment that sets the tone for your company’s future.
3. Inspire Emotional Trust
Encouragement is vital — and when it comes from the heart, it builds emotional trust. Too many work environments are so competitive that it keeps employees on edge, reluctant to share their true feelings or thoughts, withholding news of accomplishments or goals lest a peer get the idea and try to get there first. But emotional trust is critical if any collaboration is to take place. There’s no such thing as a solely ‘every person for themselves’ workforce — and leaders that provide heartfelt, honest encouragement achieve a level of trust that creates true community.
4. Get in the Gift Zone
The term “gift” above refers to talents and skills. One key way leaders nurture relationships is recognizing and promoting one another’s strengths and talents. The approach is a win for everyone involved that strengthens and connects everyone in the organization.
When all team members are operating in their “gift zone,” it generates tremendous energy and excitement: everyone is doing what they were born to do. The result is often a terrific service experience for customers (or clients, patients, or guests). And there’s less friction, less waste, and more effectiveness.
5. Invite Open-Hearted Encounters
There’s another level to emotional trust that phenomenal leaders build with their faithful allies and team members. It involves a level of candor and honesty that only comes when others are unafraid to speak openly. But it’s in those openhearted encounters that remarkable changes and growth can happen.
The most trusted allies are going to be the ones that know a leader the best — and may be able to point out a flaw in decision-making or strategy that the leader can’t see. And every leader needs to maintain their own accountability. It not only builds character, it will translate across the organization and inspire accountability and candor among others down the line.
6. Develop Small Groups — or PODS
When leaders nurture and mentor small groups, it spreads a spirit of community throughout the organization. One form: a POD, 7 – 9 members focused on the Power of Discovery. PODS may meet regularly to foster more effective communication, better implementation, or more accountability. Instead of set agendas, their discussions are interactive, energetic, and focused on goals, projects, behaviors, or developing members.
PODS give participants an opportunity to discover what they need to do rather than be taught or told. They give people a sense of ownership that results in better implementation. In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin founded a group called a Junto that helped its members learn from one another; offshoots still exist today. In this fast-paced economy, PODS are faster, more efficient, and more innovative.
As today’s top organizations reveal, a well-crafted culture of community benefits employees, customers and profits. It takes work to build this kind of community in an organization, but it’s worth the effort. When leaders integrate community into the culture of the organization, it sparks incredible results. We all want to feel a sense of connection, be valued for our contributions, and participate in something larger than ourselves. We long to belong. When it comes to successful organizations, a culture based on true community is the key differentiator.
 Howard Partridge is an international business coach, #1 Amazon.com bestselling author and in-demand conference speaker. He grew up on welfare, started his first business out of the trunk of his car and transformed it into a multi-million dollar, turnkey enterprise. He has owned nine small businesses and for two decades he has helped small business owners revolutionize their businesses and have more freedom in their lives. His new book is The Power of Community: How Phenomenal Leaders Inspire Their Teams, Wow Their Customers, and Make Bigger Profits. The book lays out an effective step-by-step approach to transforming your organization — by tapping into the human need to connect and feel valued by others. |