Whenever there is high employee turn over, it means they are not happy… disengaged. The simple answer to employee disengagement is, employee unhappiness. The stats are insane. Read about them.

Have you designed and created a culture in which employees feel valued? Do they experience a sense of purpose? If not, they will be secretly (or overtly disgruntled)… they may even leave one day. And that costs you time and money! Meanwhile, your customers become disgruntled and jump ship due to poor customer service or a general failure to deliver on the brand promise.

Unhappy cultures start and end with leadership.

As a former Cirque du Soleil performer, team captain, and recently as a consultant and facilitator for CIRQUE SPARK sessions (a new team development program), I learned many invaluable cultural lessons on how to inspire, empower and engage team members.

Your culture must be clearly defined, communicated and understood through your vision, mission, strategy and action plans. Keep it simple and evident. Make it diverse. Then honor it through actions and behavior. Don’t rely on words to drive your culture.

Cirque's cultural philosophy was to drive innovation and excellence by constantly challenging their team members, but also themselves as a brand to optimize Customer Experiences. As performers, we were challenged. Which meant we were continually engaged. Our ideas were heard, though not always implemented. This gave us a sense of value.

Without being challenged at work, employees tend to stagnate, they become complacent - they get bored. They leave. And if that’s not the reason, then one of your leaders (bosses), is toxic.

The challenge at Cirque was not in the form of competition (though that, too was healthy), but rather by challenging us as individuals, as a team. They invited us to not only find the solution, but to become the solution. 

We are invited and allowed to flex our creativity and decision-making muscles. By listening and building on our ideas, we felt a sense of ownership. Ownership brings great satisfaction. They provided an environment and tools filled with opportunities for experimentation, learning and growth.

The challenge cannot be overwhelming, intimidating or simply beyond the potential of your team members, less initiate fight, flight or freeze response. Yet they must be pushed beyond their comfort zones to feel alive and engaged.

There are multiple tools that Cirque implemented to keep us engaged. It ltimately it came down to one building block. Design and create a culture that is happy… working for them was not perfect, but we were happy and fulfilled for the most part. And that is the differentiator regarding employee engagement and loyalty. It’s that simple.

It takes a small minority to begin the disengagement cancer. In the book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the “pandemic” phenomenon. He argues that one of three reasons for a “tipping point” is what he calls, “The Law of the few”. The other 2 principals he talks about that contribute to a tipping point are:

The Stickiness Factor. Is the message being sent with impact? If you allow one bad employee to stick around or get away with stuff, the message spreads like wild fire and infects others with great consequence.

The Power of Context. The example that he gives is when bystanders do nothing at the scene of an accident, they will all do nothing. If one helps, then others follow.

AT ENGAGE Teams 360, we build happier teams. We transform cultures. We approach leadership in different and innovative ways. Why do we focus on employee happiness? Because according to Gallup, 1 in 2 employees are unhappy. Disgruntled employees cost the US economy over $400 BILLION annually. That is a very SAD statistic.

We'd love to engage your team and initiate a cultural paradigm shift that will result in increased profits and elevated Customer Experiences. CONTACT US TODAY FOR A PROPOSAL.

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Thank you for reading. If this blog was of value, please feel welcome to copy, borrow and share.

Vital Germaine

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