Here’s an analogy for you
Employees : Company :: Athletes : Team
Why am I making this relation? Well, I recently read an article on Virginia Tech’s spring football practice and it got me to thinking about how athletes and employees have very similar positions and expectations that they need to meet.
The article touched on how the O-line players won’t perform well if they don’t play hard every play. The O-line coach, Jeff Grimes, doesn’t sound pleased at this point in the season with the level of effort the players are putting forth. He wants to see aggressiveness and leadership – which he only sees in a handful of players so far. However, we all know how the saying goes, “there’s no ‘I’ in team ‒ everyone needs to be on board.
The same goes for any company. If you want to be successful, all employees need to be engaged. It’s great if you have a few standout employees, but they cannot score all the touchdowns and get the ‘W’ without the help of their peers.
So, how do you get the whole team inspired and ready to play?
The best way is understand where your employees are coming from. Are you asking for feedback regularly? Because you should be. Feedback is the only way to know what your employees are thinking or feeling. If you collect feedback early and often, you have a better sense of what they want and need, you learn about their challenges and successes, and ultimately, you learn what it takes to engage and satisfy them.
Collecting feedback should be a focal point for all organizations because once you analyze the feedback, you can create action plans to help move the company forward.
So the next time you’re out on the practice field (aka your office!) realize that, yes, you might have disengaged employees, but you can turn that play around simply by changing the way you coach or manage – collect feedback to get to the root of why employees might be dissatisfied. I guarantee you’ll have a better record once you do.
Want to dive deeper into this topic? We’re hosting a webinar today and an encore session on May 1,
Avoiding Awkward Moments in Employee Feedback, and we’d love for you to join. We’ll discuss how disengaged employees are costing your company thousands of dollars, common challenges in collecting employee feedback and solutions to overcome them (you might be surprised on what a BIG impact this can have on your bottom line). Sign up today!
