Page 81 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

68B RE-ENGAGE

senior leaders who choose not to conduct employee surveys, partly
because they prefer not to face the uncomfortable truths reflected at
them in a mirror. And there are even consultants who are themselves
reluctant to report those truths for fear of being the messenger who
gets shot for doing so.

: THE BLAME GAME

The specter of blame is a constant threat to teamwork in corporate life.
Managers blame senior leaders for not sharing more of the wealth, for
imposing demands to do even more with even less, and for tying their
hands when it comes to rewarding employees. Senior leaders blame
managers for not getting better performance from their people and for
poor time management and cost control. Senior leaders and manag-
ers both blame human resources for not understanding the business
and for failing to be strategic. Employees blame all the above, and get
blamed for not giving their best efforts. As one frustrated manager
complained, “Why doesn’t the company conduct an engagement survey that
holds employees accountable for engaging themselves? It’s not all on the
manager, you know!” Our research confirms that indeed it is not.
In most of the Best Places to Work we have studied, a spirit of part-
nership prevails. Senior leaders, managers, frontline supervisors, hu-
man resources staff, and employees in general realize that they all
have their roles to play in an enterprise where business goals transcend
blame and self-justification and where all are accountable. All parties
know they are responsible for creating a highly engaged workforce.
Senior leaders drive strategy, business objectives, culture, and man-
agement practices. Managers and supervisors transmit cultural val-
ues, align employees with business objectives, and drive daily results
through task motivation and people skills. Like a great sports team,
all the players know their roles and recognize that the team comes
before the individual. Many employee engagement initiatives, such
as the implementation of a new compensation system, require the