Episode 107: The Brutal Truth about Employee Engagement with Geoffrey Wade
In Episode 107 of The Business Habitat podcast, Sam is joined by business performance specialist Geoffrey Wade for a thought-provoking conversation around the importance of embracing emotions and the merits of employee engagement.
From a background in engineering, robotics and computer science, Geoffrey became fascinated by people and in particular how they interacted in the workforce. Likening businesses to cybernetics, Geoffrey refers to the principles of complex systems, with multiple people and stakeholders, often with conflicting goals and drivers.
In discussing the human factor, Sam and Geoffrey turn their attention to emotions and the growing understanding that employees cannot be expected to compartmentalise and leave their personal life at home when they come to work. Therefore they note it is necessary for both employees and employers to understand how to deal with emotions and all that they entail, and Geoffrey provides a real life example to clarify the point.
The conversation turns to imposter syndrome with Sam and Geoffrey exploring what this means in a practical sense, and whether or not it can be outgrown. Sharing their own experiences, Sam and Geoffrey note that rather than being an uncommon feeling, the perception of feeling inadequate for a particular role is likely experienced by the majority of people as part of the human condition.
With Geoffrey’s professional focus on business performance and psychological safety, Sam and Geoffrey spend time discussing the merits and pitfalls on employee engagement metrics. Geoffrey quotes significant academic research which sheds light on the role that staff surveys play in the workplace and Sam and Geoffrey explore the drivers which have the most impact on employee satisfaction.
Regardless of where you sit in the corporate arena, whether it’s as a business owner, employee or senior executive, or are simply a keen observer of human interaction, this episode will provide compelling insight into team dynamics and the evolving nature of the world of work.
Listen to an excerpt
What we cover in this episode
Employee engagement as a metric
How business is like cybernetics – messy and complex
Embracing emotions and finding out what they are telling you
Imposter syndrome
Employee engagement numbers – silver bullet or flawed metric?
The #1 driver that makes up more than 70% of employee engagement
What’s the ROI on employee engagement?
The results of peer review research
The balance of metrics and people
The one thing you can put into your every day
Quotes
“Emotions? Some of them you experience, they’re pleasant. Oh, we embrace those. The ones that are not so pleasant, we push them away. What? No, they’re emotions, embrace them all. You don’t have to get stuck in the ones that don’t feel nice.“ - Geoffrey
“Anger’s the same (as frustration) - there’s a significant mismatch between what’s going on in reality and what you want to be going on, or the outcomes that you’re getting and the outcomes that you want. And when there’s that disconnect you have an emotional response.“ - Geoffrey
“In our culture we’re encouraged to avoid (confusion) and we’re given this frame that it’s an unpleasant sensation…Confusion is what proceeds learning.“ - Geoffrey
“It’s actually a company measure. We call it employee engagement but it’s about the employee commitment to the company. So the perspective is not from an employee perspective” - Geoffrey
“The metrics have their place…the dilemma is that often in a business that we just look at it through that perspective.“ - Geoffrey
Links
Connect with Geoffrey on LinkedIn
Connect with Onirik on LinkedIn
Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are - Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy