Organizational research from Gallup shows that 50% of employees were disengaged last year. That’s a sizeable chunk who hate coming to work. This means half your workforce is regularly absent, unmotivated, or suffering from persistent, low-level mental health problems; in other words, a zombie organization.
Or, they’re stuck in what I call “the curse of mediocrity”: they show up physically but would much rather not be there. There’s a strong likelihood that they’re counting down to the weekend or their next holiday.
It’s the 33% that interests me. This group is actively engaged. They love coming to work. Whisper it, but they’d probably take a big pay cut and still rock up with a smile. In my research, these employees report feeling enthusiastic, passionate, invigorated, and happy at work.
I wanted to know three things:
- Who the heck are the flourishing few?
- What are they doing that makes them feel so amazing?
- What can we learn from them that we can apply to ourselves so that we might also carry the feel-good factor?
Good news: Their secrets are surprisingly simple.
Waking the zombie organization
One of the quickest wins is switching your focus from weakness to strength. It pays to be a strengths spotter.
In positive psychology, there’s a wonderful term: “collective effervescence.” It’s when there’s a buzz, aliveness, and vibrancy about the place. You’ll know when you hit the collective effervescence jackpot because these are the days when work doesn’t feel like work.
Bottom line, you’ve got a much better chance of feeling invested in your work if you’re in an occupation where you’re given plenty of scope to play to your strengths. It’s akin to the psychological concept of flow. Time flies. You’re totally absorbed in whatever it is you’re doing. You don’t feel exhausted. On the contrary, you feel refreshed and invigorated.
And yet businesses the world over are making the same mistakes. If we know that playing to our strengths makes us come alive, why do most organizations send people on courses to plug their weaknesses?
Maybe, just maybe, we can turn conventional thinking on its head by realizing you will get more value from your training budget by breaking with tradition and spending time and money developing your people in areas they’re already good at.
Which, I guess, brings me to weaknesses. What are we supposed to do about them? Ignore them and hope they’ll go away? Erm, no. Here’s a subtle but crucial point. I’m not suggesting you sweep weaknesses under the carpet. Yes, it’s important to provide feedback on weaknesses but be aware that focusing on deficiencies leads only to the development of competence whereas a focus on strengths leads to excellence.
In other words, if we focus on what’s wrong, we create a world of grey where everyone is average, but if we focus on what’s right then we create a world of brilliant color where different people stand out and excel in different ways.
Rocket fuel for motivation
However, for most of us, getting to know our strengths is a big hurdle. It’s a workplace tragedy that plays out over and over again—too many people (especially the zombies in the organization) go through their entire working life without ever knowing or revealing their true strengths. In fact, it’s all too common to become enormously familiar with our own weaknesses and uncomfortably inarticulate about our strengths.
To become a strengths spotter, here are some simple questions to ponder:
- What do you do really well?
- What do you seem to pick up quickly and learn naturally?
- What are the things where you get a real buzz when you are doing them, feeling energized and alive?
- What are the activities that give you flow: the feeling of losing a sense of time when you are doing them?
- What do you most look forward to doing?
- What gives you the greatest sense of “this is what I was born to do”?
Strengths spotting
I call it “strengths nudge theory” because all you have to do is call out people’s strengths. Catch them doing things well, and tell them. You don’t have to wait for their annual appraisal, tell them there and then.
Moving from being a weakness spotter to a strengths spotter is a small change that will have a big impact. And here’s the most amazing thing: strengths spotting works for all the categories above. The zombie organization will come alive, the mediocre will start to shine and the engaged become supercharged.
Strengths spotting acts as a simple tap on their shoulder, and the best thing is that you get to be with them as they wake up to the magnificence of their abilities.