In my early days in management, I believed and subscribed to a Customer Focus philosophy, believing that a satisfied customer is the number one objective of any and all organisations. The key to succeed in any business is to have satisfied and profitable customers that keep on coming back for more. With years of experience managing and advising businesses over the years, I have not changed my belief. “Wowing” customers at every level of their interaction with your product and service is the number one priority.

My first career, spanning twenty-three years heading four companies, and my second career of twenty-five years, consulting with over 300 clients, taught me that unless you have engaged and committed employees, the first objective of wowing customers may not be fully achieved. So, the key question here is not just to know what the number one objective is, but “how to achieve such ‘wow’”. The list of questions is long and the how-to tools may be even longer:

• How do you create a single team with tens and hundreds of employees, that is, a team that is engaged and committed to the company’s vision and mission and one that adheres to and lives by your core values?
• How to keep your vision alive?
• How do you continually remain focused on your mission?
• How do you avoid organisation silos?
• How can you get people to be aligned in their efforts to serve customers and achieve healthy profits?
• How do you promote a “life work balance”?

How to’s... How to’s... How to’s... The intent is simple, but the execution is not easy.

Keeping the company vision alive and keeping the team focused every day on the company mission depends on excellent communication led by a trusted leadership. Communication needs to take place daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Communication should include a certain balance of subjects and not just focus on the attainment of objectives, customers, operations, and financial results. Communicate on subjects that build team spirit and develop engagement, for example, those that pertain to training matters, career development, R&D, ways to explore and uncover opportunities, how to gain life work balance, etc.

Wondering how you measure up when it comes to the leadership and management of your team? These ten key questions should help you find out how well you are doing in terms of building a strong and sustainable level of engagement from all your employee.

1. Do employees know what is expected of them and have access to excellent training to perform their job? This includes formal on-boarding program, continuous training, SMART objectives, etc.
2. Do employees have the right resources needed to do their job? And does management follow-up on acquiring and updating resources that help employees do their job better and more efficiently?
3. Does management recognize employees’ contributions and encourage their professional development? For example: celebrating wins, recognizing employees’ work, discussing, and implementing career development plans.
4. Are employees encouraged to make suggestions, provide feedback, express their concerns openly, and does management listen and address concerns when they are brought up?
5. Do employees know why their job is important and how it fits in with the entire success of the company? For instance, does management communicate company’s broad strategies and performance, and keep employees up to date on achievements as well as setbacks?
6. Do employees see first-hand that management is committed to quality work and customer satisfaction?
7. Is honesty, professional conduct, and high ethics encouraged and consistently watched and enforced, that is, does management walk the talk?
8. Does management follow-up to encourage employees have a life work balance? Clues that this is the case include: vacations are encouraged, there is respect for employees’ privacy and weekends time off, management implements actions designed to avoid stress and employees’ burn-out.
9. Do employees make friends at work and management works to promote an environment of safety, trust, and healthy camaraderie? Programs that promote healthy contribution to the local community are encouraged and employees feel appreciated and proud to belong, e.g., events such as summer BBQ, sports events, holiday parties, etc.
10. Are employees encouraged to try new things and empowered to make decisions that help the company achieve its vision, mission, and accelerate innovation and new processes. And if errors are made, how does management react. Do you learn from errors made?

Answering these 10 questions will show you where you are doing a good job and where there is room for improvements. Do not be overly hard on yourself but make a simple plan to address these areas and track your progress over the next few quarters. I found that direction is more important than destination. Get your direction right first.

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