3 Actions Can Make or Break Employee Engagement

“No good deed goes unpunished” was a frequent go-to phrase for one of my leaders whenever things didn’t work out well for somebody trying to do the right thing. It’s a funny phrase, but too often describes what employees experience when thing go awry. Those experiences more often than not destroy employee engagement.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s how one leader managed an employee with the right intentions, but the wrong result.

Employees in the tankhouse refinery in a metals company were trying to increase the team’s productivity. One team member came up with the idea of turning up the electricity in the electrowinning process to produce more pure copper cathodes in less time. Excited about his idea, he charged ahead and increased electric output expecting amazing results in the days ahead. He was aghast to find that instead of faster, better cathodes, he had created an expensive disaster leading the tankhouse superintendent to call him into his office.

When they met, the employee asked the superintendent to just fire him and get it over with. But the superintendent recognized that this employee’s initiative was the very thing that could rally others to improve productivity. Instead of firing him, the superintendent used the experience to praise the employee for his personal initiative and commitment to tankhouse goals. He also taught the employee that, before taking action, in some cases it was important to involve others. He introduced the employee to some of them including engineers who could work with him on his ideas.

This employee wasn’t fired that day. And the business unit went on to become an industry leader as employees who felt safe and supported continued to develop new ways to improve productivity and efficiency.

So what are 3 make or break actions we can take from this example for employee engagement?

1. Develop talent to take initiative instead of requiring permission for every action used to improve results
2. Praise acts of personal commitment and initiative especially when they fail instead of focusing on the failure
3. Turn failures into learning opportunities instead of punishment

The superintendent’s actions that day could have been different and led to a very different outcome. Consider opportunities you have to make or break employee engagement. How will you use these 3 actions to produce great results with your team? How can you learn more ways to engage your team this way?

Kevin Herring is co-author of Practical Guide for Internal Consultants, and President of Ascent Management Consulting. Kevin can be contacted at kevinh@ascentmgt.com.

Ascent Management Consulting is found at www.ascentmgt.com and specializes in performance turnarounds, leadership coaching, and appraisal-less performance management.