A research company called Gallup does yearly employee engagement studies. And they’ve discovered over the years that there are only three types of employee.
Engaged staff are the superstars. They’re the ones who treat the business like it’s their own, in a good way.
Not engaged staff make up the bulk of any workforce. They turn up, do what they’re supposed to do and go home. They would jump ship and work for someone else if they were offered a good pay rise or more flexible working hours.
Actively disengaged staff are the worst ones – we call them the ‘internal terrorists’. They are the whingers, the moaners, and the ones who are most resistant to change. Once someone has been actively disengaged for a year or more, there is normally only one outcome for these people…
Most of the MSP owners I work with have a good balance of these people. Which is critical because the quality of your people directly affects your culture and performance (and therefore results).
Too many of us spend the majority of our time dealing with the worst staff… when we should of course be investing it into growing and nurturing our very best staff.
The key to getting more superstars starts at the recruitment stage. You need to hire for attitude and never for skillset. Someone with the right attitude can always improve their hard skills. Whereas the reverse is not true
In fact, the only person who can change someone’s attitude is… themselves
Within your business right now, you have people who are not engaged, who could rise to be superstars if the circumstances were right. I bet you can name some right now.
These people have demands. They want to be well rewarded (a high consideration, but not the only one); a leader they can trust; a stable and exciting business; and to be part of something that matters.
Give them all of these things and they will be happy. Happiness leads to increased engagement, which also makes staff retention excellent.
Continuous development is also critical to them. The best development you can give to your superstars in training is your time. In fact, give them just 30 minutes every other week for a quality 121 alone with you (ideally off-site).
That time can become the most valuable investment you make. Because through the power of osmosis, you will teach them how you think and act (and how that affects the results you get).
Paint a picture of what the future could look like. Teach them to lead. Help develop their decision making abilities. Teach them that it’s natural part of the learning process to make mistakes (so long as you learn from them).
And above all else, demonstrate your faith in them.
I know I am asking you to spend a little more of your precious and scarce time on something else. But I promise, every hour you invest in your superstars now, will be returned to you multiple times in the future.
