Building a great place to work

We believe that if employee engagement and the principles that lie behind it were more widely understood, if good practice was more widely shared, if the potential that resides in the country's workforce was more fully unleashed, we could see a step change in workplace performance and in employee well-being, for the considerable benefit of UK plc." Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance through Employee Engagement, a government report commissioned by the Rt Hon Lord Peter Mandelson and endorsed by David Cameron

We all intuitively know that engagement - the relationship between employee and employer - can be the differentiator in unlocking productivity and creating a great place to work.

The way employee engagement operates can take many forms but the best models are those which have been custom-developed for the institution.

Many company leaders describe the 'light-bulb moment' when an understanding of the full potential significance of employee engagement dawned. Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy, for example, reportedly recorded his reaction when he realised that the company knew more about its customers than it did about its employees, and how the company then set about understanding what the workforce wanted, what motivated them at work and what workplace approaches would best build on those understandings.

My own light bulb moment came when I was working in Brazil. I realised that people behave how they feel and that the problems we faced in the business were because people did not take responsibility for their feelings and behaviour. I also realised that it was not the organisation's job to manage people's feelings and that what people feel is their business and their responsibility entirely. However, what I did understand is that we as an organisation could help people understand why they feel as they do, why they do the things they do and then are surprised at the less-than-satisfactory outcome. In short, we could give staff a 'toolkit of personal evolution' to help them develop a deeper understanding of themselves, the power of relationships and what it means to be accountable for everything that happens in your life.

Many organisations, large and small, talk about building a great place to work or having a winning team but then struggle to deliver it. Despite the best intentions and loads of initiatives around benefits, reward systems, working environment and work/life balance, the truth of the matter is that people just behave how they feel. But the sad truth is that most people don't really know what it is they are really feeling (numb, bored, depressed, overwhelmed, not valued etc). They struggle to see past their own problems, worries and neuroses, let alone make sense of them. They have no real idea why they do the things they do, why things don't work out for them and why they are not as successful as they would like to be.

I think we have all been caught here at one time or another. We have all experienced this place of exhaustion, feeling burnt out, stuck and a failure - a sense that there must be another way but we don't know what it is. In my experience of working as a coach, when people are caught here, it is either about their needs not being met or about the expectations/demands they are making of others. Neither are particularly successful strategies. But when we become accountable for our lives, careers and business, we can change everything.

For the employees in Brazil, when I was chief operating officer, the company ran a series of training workshops, the objectives of which were to give people tools and the understanding to move them from a place of not feeling valued and of being a victim to a place where they were accountable for their life and career - inspiring and motivating them to be part of the solution rather than to remain stuck as part of the problem - and it worked!

Most of the problems I encounter working in business have one thing in common and that is that at the core of the problem is usually a relationship problem - whether it is to do with our relationship to ourselves, problems with a business colleague, boss, career, the organisation or with a customer. Relationships seem to be the hardest things to manage and discussing strategy and setting goals seems easy in comparison. Get the people factor right - get the trust, honesty and ability to communicate right - and you can achieve anything.

In my view, a paradigm shift in employee engagement is required from today's independent/dependent relationship between employer and employee, to an inter-connected relationship in which both employer and employee own their accountability. When this principle lives in the company, employees will naturally give of themselves. You create win/win for all stakeholders. It requires a step change in personal development training as people will need to learn about their own accountability. This is highly relevant today as accountability is the first step to integrity.

This is a major step for business as it will, in future, require an understanding of basic human psychology. This has implications for HR, L&D professionals and coaches. It is not something that can be covered in management training - it has to go deeper than that. If you are going to change people's behaviour and how they view their life, the work has to be different. Done well, this form of training and coaching has the ability to transform people and organisations. It is the only real way to give life to the organisation's values.

Business today

Currently, business is concerned principally with its bottom line. I think in the future, business will pay even more attention to employees, invest in them more, and recognise them as its single most valuable resource. It will not just demand excellence, it will find ways to inspire excellence. As a result, it will seek to motivate, educate and develop people into cohesive teams with creativity, friendship and mutuality.

The problems in business are many and varied. Whether it is profitability, margins, shareholder value, employee engagement, customer loyalty, they all manifest themselves, typically, in one of the following symptoms:

1 stress

2 burnout

3 exhaustion

4 lack of vision

5 deadness

6 overwork

7 business.

The underlying issues that surround these problems are all things that, typically, an organisation lacks the tools to address effectively; they are precisely the things that stop its values living and get in the way of creating a great place to work.

Most HR departments struggle with these issues but they are key areas to understand and address if you are to create a truly great organisation. An organisation that customers love to buy from, where staff love to work, where talk is less of work/life balance but rather of life/life balance, an organisation that is admired and respected in the communities in which it does business - this is the sort of organisation we would all love to work for. This is the sort of organisation we are all trying to create, to have our employees emotionally engaged in.

In a nutshell: "Engagement is the difference that makes all the difference - and could make all the difference as we face the realities of life in the 21st century." The MacLeod Review on Employee Engagement, July 2009.

In my opinion, for this to happen, people have first to be engaged in their own life. If people's lives lack any real meaning, it is hard to give meaning to the organisation, let alone the world around them. Mentoring and coaching that purports to change people's world must be different and it must use a different language and set of references. The Millar Method approach is to tackle the issue from a relationship perspective, understanding that it is our attitude, projections, judgments, feelings of righteousness, inability to communicate, dishonesty, avoidance and denial that get in the way of success.

By understanding how and why these issues show up and learning how to move through these traps, employees can grow and relate to each other at a higher level with greater self-awareness and authenticity. This can only benefit the organisation for which they work.

I developed the Millar Method from the belief that business has lost its heart and that, if you help people to get their heart back, they can achieve anything and this can only be good for business and society.

The Corporate Leadership Council, the human resources practice of the Corporate Executive Board, in its report Employee Engagement, A Review of Current Research 2006 concludes that: "Emotional commitment drives effort. Emotional commitment is four times as valuable as rational commitment in producing discretionary effort. Indeed the search for a high performance workforce is synonymous with the search for emotional commitment. Rational commitment is based around financial, developmental and professional issues while emotional commitment is the extent to which employees value, enjoy and believe in their jobs, managers, teams or organisations."

Understanding the stages of relationships

This is a key underpinning of the Millar Method. All business relationships go through stages on their way to partnership and success. Each stage has its own challenges, traps and answers. Whether it is the executive board, management team, a department or even a sales/project team, if you know the stage of relationship you are in, you are better prepared to handle the challenges and not be blind-sided by the issues.

The stages or cycle that all relationships go through are the following:

The beginning This is the honeymoon phase. We are totally optimistic about the possibilities of the other person, group or organisation. In this stage, we are only seeing the potential of the relationship - this is the job, the employee, the department, the acquisition.

Power struggle We stop believing the other person, group or organisation has a significant contribution to make for us or we stop believing we have anything significant to contribute. We start to question their aims and motivations, so we withhold our motivations and information for fear of losing something. We want to control in order to do things our way.

Control always leads to power struggles. The way through a power struggle is by learning to bridge the differences by communicating effectively, and integrating and including both sides of a dispute. The key here is learning how to communicate. If we are just making the other person wrong - "I am right" - nothing can change.

This is where people resign and acquisitions most commonly fail. If you don't get through this stage, you sink into the Dead Zone.

The Dead Zone This is where most businesses are caught, in my opinion. There can still be some success here but it feels like hard work. On the surface, we appear to be doing all right - the business is profitable, we are making our goals - but it feels like hard going. We are getting by but, secretly, we are no longer 100 per cent committed to the job. The real issues in the business are not being addressed and we are tolerating things.

We are in the role of doing things - good employee, motivated manager - but we are not being authentic.

The co-creative and partnership stageHere, all sides of the partnership come into balance, through mutuality, equality and understanding. Our effective communication inspires others to see the bigger picture and our work situation becomes co-creative.

When we win back our heart, we become unstoppable. We don't see things as problems, only as opportunities. Things happen for us. We are in the flow. People are attracted to working with us. We are great to be around. There is an energy and sense of fun in everything we tackle. We achieve things. Our relationships work for us and, ultimately, we enjoy success with ease.

Learning about relationships is therefore really important, not just in our business life but for our personal well-being as well.

The importance of relationships       

We all know that successful relationships make us happy, but not everyone knows that successful relationships make our business successful.

In my experience of coaching and working with individuals and groups, I have found that any problem in business is a reflection of a relationship problem. From the power of improving our relationships, all of the other issues that surround us can be straightened out.

Here is what relationship-based training means practically to the business:

Valuing customers If you don't value your customers, you turn them into objects or things. No one wants to be treated this way. Look at the anger and resentment towards financial institutions today. The miss-selling of products (eg payment protection insurance) has broken down trust.

When you give your customers value, they value you, their relationship with you and your product. If you are just trying to make a sale, it will leave a bad impression with them. They will feel abused.

Valuing co-workers If you are not valuing those you work with, both above and below you, it shows places where you do not value yourself. When you feel valueless, you will attempt to get value from your work and, as a result, you will push yourself and others. This is unsuccessful and burns you and the team out.

The cohesiveness or bonding in any company is one of the keys of success. It allows everyone to unify toward the same goal for the whole company to be more successful.

Valuing your partner Your relationship with your partner is one of the key aspects of success. We understand that it is a key to happiness but it is not given sufficient recognition as a key to success. Through the love and bonding in this relationship, you bring about intimacy, deep friendship and the power to succeed. Where there is a power struggle or deadness in this key relationship, energy leaks away.

A relationship-based business thus maintains a balance between getting the job done and supporting everyone involved. It is only when we are 100 per cent committed to the job, others and ourselves that there is great success.

Case Study

I have done many assignments but one that stands out for me, because of the people and their willingness to change, is a hotel I worked with last year. I called it my kitchen nightmare! The manager and the chef were in a fight (mostly civilised but prone to outbursts on both sides) and the hotel was suffering as a consequence.

My job was to resolve the conflict and coach them to be the leaders they needed to become if their teams were to be effective and the hotel run successfully. I was able to show them the cycle that all relationships go through, help them understand the dynamic in which they were caught and give them tools to communicate.

They now have a greater level of awareness of what is going on and there is a greater level of trust, honesty and authenticity between them.

Guy Millar is a trainer and coach, and founder and director of The Millar Method. He can be contacted via www.themillarmethod.co.uk