How a New Chair Created a New Attitude

Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most to your employees.

Over the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to conduct leadership training for a great group of supervisors. I started the training process as I always do, with conducting an employee engagement survey for each supervisor.

The survey results for several of the supervisors revealed that the “command and control” management style they had relied on for years was not working. A significant number of employees complained of being treated like children, not being listened to, and generally feeling devalued. It was clear that if these supervisors were going to improve employee engagement they had to change their approach.

The content of the first Workshop in June focused on training the supervisors to be more flexible, to listen more and talk less, and to deploy a more personalized coaching approach tailored to the needs of each employee. The session ended with practicing applying the participatory style of management in various situations.

Fast forward three months to the second employee engagement survey, the purpose of which was to gauge the supervisors’ progress. I consider a 10% improvement between the first and second survey to be very good. With this group I thought we’d be lucky to see a 5% improvement. That’s why I was astonished when the survey showed a whopping 16% across the board improvement over the first survey.

As you can imagine, when the supervisors got together for our second Workshop in September, they were very proud of themselves. As we went around the room, each supervisor got to brag about how they had used what they learned and the positive impact it had on their employees’ willingness to be fully engaged.

It was Zeke, one of the younger supervisors, who put things in perspective. He reported that his more open approach was well received by his team. But, what really turned their attitudes around was when he finally replaced their old, broken down chairs (they’d been griping about for years) with brand new, ergonomic office chairs. He said, “I guess that sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.”

I wrote those words on the whiteboard. A good reminder for all of us.

2011 © Barbara Burke. All rights reserved.
Not a Monday Aha! subscriber yet? Get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up today.
(Look for the next Monday Aha! on 11/21/11.)