Researchers conducted a global Gallup poll and found that only 13 percent of employees are engaged at work. If this stat is true, low engagement is at epidemic levels and it’s absolutely affecting productivity, innovation and competitive advantage.
When I tell CEOs that they need to give themselves and their employees permission to be human, I sometimes get skeptical looks. It sounds so far from the conversations we have about operational efficiencies, priorities, and performance that it may sound unrelated or even hokey. But really, giving permission to be human is a reference to the fact that as humans, we all have a set of natural strengths and natural weaknesses, and when we focus on developing and leveraging our natural strengths, we grow. If we focus on and obsess over our weaknesses and past failures, we become our own impediment to realizing our full potential.
Over the years, I’ve been called into many companies to assist with the restoration of relationships that have deteriorated due to one or both parties being unwilling to engage in some difficult conversations. These situations took many forms: the VP whose abrasiveness was tanking partnerships, the executive whose passive yet judgmental management style had built distrust within the leadership team, the sales leader who communicated frequently with passive-aggressive emails.
