Hearing it is not enough

Recently, I found an article, published on www.e-hotelier.com, which I liked right from reading the headline. The author, Bryan K. Williams, an expert, consultant and speaker for service excellence, employee engagement, and organisational improvement, named his article Building a team of “Living it“ employees. And I started reading it the minute it entered my mailbox.

It begins like this: Every team has three types of employees...those who are hearing it, believing it, and living it. "It" refers to the level of commitment that employees have in their role, team, and organisation. I am referring to how emotionally vested they are.

Then he explains the meaning of all three types:

Let's begin with the hearing it employees. They basically have an "it's just a job" mentality. They come to work, do what they are supposed to do, take their required break and go home. These hearing it employees are capable of performing this way for long periods of time, while not contributing anything more than the bare minimum.

Over time, and with the right supervisor, that hearing it employee may move up to believing it. These believing it employees have bought in to the company's culture and enjoy their jobs. They understand the "purpose" of their role, team, and organisation. They do their job duties, plus more. Take note, however, that while these believing it employees are reliable, steady workers, they are not "star" performers...yet.

These star performers are the living it employees. These employees consistently come to work early and leave late. They look for ways to contribute more. They have a burning desire to improve performance...not only for themselves, but for the entire team as well. They tend to be the informal leaders that others follow after the meetings have ended and the memos have been sent. These are the employees who actually create exceptional memories and foster customer loyalty through their exceptional service delivery. In fact, these living it employees can easily do the work equivalent to three or more hearing it/believing it team-mates. They are that good.

In his keynotes and workshops, Mr Williams regularly asks the audience, mostly managers, which group they should mainly focus on in order to reach the goal of developing a team of living it employees. What do you think is the most mentioned answer? Which group would you pick? Most people say hearing it, then a smaller number say believing it and the minority say living it.

This is what Mr Williams says: Well, one particular group will stimulate the greatest results in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of energy from the manager: the living it employees. This approach is often referred to as strength management or positive organisational scholarship. Essentially, it means that in order to get more of what is right, then you should focus on what is right. If you want excellent performance, then talk about excellent performance. If you want more employees to exceed customer expectations, then talk about exceeding customer expectations. One of the fastest ways to de-motivate your living it employees is to accept under-performance or mediocre performance from everyone else. These living it employees want to be empowered and they want you to ask for their opinions.

An interesting point, however, is that living it employees will often tell you that they don't need any extra recognition, they are self-motivated, and they don't require anything further from you. Don't believe them! It is not true. Read the following very carefully. Everyone who works hard craves appreciation and recognition. They want...no...they need to know that their hard work and dedication are being appreciated. If the living it employees do not feel appreciated, they will either quit and leave, or quit and stay. Neither option is desirable.

And here we are again - praise, recognition, appreciation - whatever you may call it. Let‘s do it and refer to my earlier article “Free wellness at work“ if you need some tips.

In our communication challenges, and this is what I am writing about here, we should use those living it employees to spread the message. They will be able to pass on the spark to their colleagues and, equally important, to the clients. Practically this means: when you need to bring across a message to your entire staff, it can be a good idea to introduce this to a group of living it employees first and give them the chance to present it to their colleagues, in a staff meeting for example. Some rough guidelines and creative freedom is all you need to provide. Once they are „in“, they feel responsible and do not want to fail.

The same thing you can do with product launches or promotions and campaigns. Include your front line living it people early enough (they will be happy to put in extra work) and they will sell your services and products automatically, especially if they were involved in the development. Since they are “living it“, they will talk about anything you and your company are introducing or offering with passion and honesty. And we all know that this sells best. Their colleagues will want to join and will pick it up from those stars, especially if they get rewarded.

Conclusion: In order to focus on your living it employees, talk to them, ask them for their opinion, listen to them, empower them and give them projects. And please, for heaven‘s sake, do not forget to appreciate them and their work and make sure that the other team members understand why they are recognised - for their outstanding engagement. By the way, the term „employee“ includes managers, since, unless we own the company, we are all employed and kind of have always somebody „above us“.

And this is what we can learn from it:

When people say they do not want anything back from what they give, do not believe them.

Living it employees must not be taken for granted. You are either lucky or a great leader if you can keep them.

Read the full article of Bryan K. Williams and some information on his work here.