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Steering the Ship and Inspiring the Crew C73

it is taking makes sense—can be as important as emotional engage-
4
ment. One study revealed that 73 percent of employees in high-
performance firms agreed that the management of their company
provided a clear sense of direction, compared with only 46 percent
5
in struggling firms. You can easily argue that this cognitive fac-
tor also contains an emotional element—the feeling of security an
employee experiences knowing the company actually has a clear
direction.
Our own analysis of survey items supports the above conclusions.
As we discussed in Chapter 3, the survey item that ranked as the fifth-
highest contributor to overall engagement scores was employee trust
in the leaders of an organization to set the right course. When this
dimension of clear and consistent direction is missing, it undermines
the very foundation of employee commitment—confidence that the
captain is steering the ship to success.

Negative Comments
The following selected comments drive home the point:

: “I feel that senior and middle management are unsure where they
are steering the company . . . and morale is low.”
: “Within our department there are too many reorganizations. Se-
nior leadership needs to get a better vision as to how the organiza-
tion should be structured and stick with it.”
: “I love my work, but lately I’m miserable working for this com-
pany and planning to leave. There is no top-down structure, and
everything is reactive rather than proactive. As a result of the re-
active tendencies of the company, things change too frequently and
there is no solid, dependable component of my job. It’s chaotic, and
I don’t have faith that the senior management is thinking about
the most important aspect of the business: the people who deliver
the product.”
: “I continue to feel like I’m punched in the gut with continuous
changes coming from upper management, unclear motives and
agendas.”