Reflections from the Road

It’s been quite the busy year… travelling for conferences, keynotes and client engagements (okay, and maybe a little golf in Scotland – a blog for another day). Most recently, I was invited to speak (Mega Session) on “Building an Employee Engagement Roadmap” at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exhibition which took place June 18-20th in Chicago.

Although some speakers fly in to speak, and then immediately leave, I always learn more from listening than from speaking. Given the ‘best of the best’ speakers get selected to present at SHRM’s Annual Conference, I was able to hear some remarkable thought leaders. This year, my colleague Camille Blake accompanied me to the conference with the goal of doubling our knowledge by sitting in on different sessions (divide and conquer!). We would love to share some thoughts, insights, statistics, and observations on leadership, workforce trends and employee engagement that we took away from this amazing conference.

Having been invited to speak at 5 of SHRM’s National Conferences, I know these are HUGE events, with a jaw dropping 17,000 HR professionals from all over the globe in attendance this year. The overall themes we pulled from the speakers were 1.) Employee engagement is bigger than ever, with almost every single speaker referencing the absolute need for employee engagement 2.) The booming economy is making it difficult to find and keep good people and 3.) It has never been a better time to be an HR professional.

With so many notable thought leaders at this year’s SHRM Conference we couldn’t pick just one to highlight. Here are some key employee engagement takeaways from some of our favorites.

Insights from Conference Keynote, Author Adam Grant
• 4 out of 5 people do not share their great ideas with anyone.
• Culture fit is essential with startups but decreases as a firm matures and you need to hire stars.
• Too many of the same culture types can be dangerous for innovation. Adam warns not to become a ‘cultural museum’. You want cultural contribution, not culture fit.
• Avoid cultures where leaders say 
“Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” – You WANT people to let you know when there are problems.
• It takes 10-20 exposures to an idea before the listener (often the leader) ‘hears it’.
• Avoid hiring selfish employees (takers) who are more than twice as expensive as hiring a star.
• Note this cool quadrant Adam shared on Agreeable/Disagreeableness and Giver/Takers:

Check out this visual, where do you place yourself and others?

Hiring Expert and Author, Paul Falcone
• “A-players” want to work for “A-managers”.
• After a candidate accepts an offer, your courtship should just be starting to risk counteroffers.
• A well thought out on-boarding process improves employee engagement, retention, and performance.

Workplace Research – May 2018, Gallup
• 74% of employees have the ability to move to different areas to do their work.
• 52% of employees say they have some choice over when they work.
• 43% of employees work away from their team at least some of the time.
• 84% of employees are matrixed to some extent.

Author, James Robbins
• Trust is a blend of Competence, Character, and Care.
• Recognition is the greatest tool a manager has to shape behavior and reinforce culture.

Emotional Intelligence Guru and Author, Daniel Goleman
• The emotional state of the leadership team sets the tone for the company.
• Our brains mimic the brain of who we’re speaking with. Happy people inject happiness, while negative people inject negativity.
• IQ is cognitive ability and can be modeled in artificial intelligence (AI).
• EQ integrates both cognitive and emotional abilities but is difficult to replicate by AI.
• EQ and IQ are independent.
• Don’t use assessment tests to gauge or make a decision on a new hire. They are too ripe with people trying to game the answers to get the job.
• Key traits to look for in employees:
– Empathy – caring for others. (Not a surprise, given this is a theme of my latest book I-Engage.)
– Organizational Awareness – how to get things done.

Neuroscience Guru, David Rock
• We tend to think about what is not happening as much as thinking about what is happening.
• Empathy is important but requires a lot of mental resources.
• Employees are usually driven by two responses: Away (Danger) and Toward (Rewards). The danger response is adaptive while the towards response is more related to thinking.
– These responses are influenced by Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relationships and Fairness (SCARF) with human nature being pulled more strongly by the Away (danger) response.

Greg Stevens and Sheri Feinzig of Globoforce WorkHuman and IBM
• To create a “human” workplace, the best outcomes are achieved from positive employee experience in the workplace, and high employee engagement.

Overall, it was amazing to again be invited to speak at the world’s largest HR conference and equally amazing to listen to so many other remarkable thought leaders.

-Bob Kelleher, Founder, The Employee Engagement Group