The sports world is studded with examples of inspirational success stories. We often hear stories from newcomers on how the legends of the game inspired them – of how they followed their dream by looking up to greats such as Lionel Messi or Michael Jordan. Truth be told, there is no ready metric or measurement for inspiration. Legends are created through inspiration and hard work.
Yet, how many of such inspiring stories do we come across in the corporate world? Five? 10? 50? Or even a 100? Is this paucity because the corporate world does not have enough pioneers or role models?
Engagement Trumps Satisfaction – Every Time
Research shows that employees who are engaged deliver 44 percent greater productivity than merely satisfied ones. If this sounds significant enough, here is another. When employees reach the inspired state, they become nearly 125 percent more productive than the satisfied ones. With the future of workforce moving towards millennials and Generation Z, the concept of talent engagement has been radically re-defined. Monotonous and redundant work cause disinterest and boredom among millennials and Generation Z workers.
Fostering a culture of nurturing young talent, and allowing them to explore new opportunities and challenges are important stepping stones to enthuse talent and ready them to becoming the next generation of leaders.
Inspiring employees through engagement starts from the first step of hiring them into the organization. The trick is to find the right employee rather than the best talent available in the market. The best talent might be the best resume in terms of qualifications, accolades or certifications – but the right talent is the one that best fits the role and organization. They will jell better with diverse teams and contribute more effectively and creatively to the success of the team and organization.
Once the right talent is hired, the next step is to nurture and sustain their engagement. Plotting meaningful tasks and team relationships, empowering them to achieve goals and success, challenging them with exciting goals, and coaching them for development and success are pivotal to inspired engagement.
Inspiration – Both the Cause & Effect of Engagement
Inspiration engages people to perform well. This, in turn, inspires them to raise their bar to discretionary and voluntary outperformance. It is a veritable win-all situation for employees and employers.
Leaders and managers need to recognize that while they manage tasks, they need to lead people through inspiration. By giving employees a meaningful purpose to make a difference, they can trigger committed engagement leading to great outcomes. With the nature of work shifting to independence and empowerment of a gig economy, it is important for leaders to inspire their people and also enable them to find their motivation from within. When pundits proclaim that “Your limitation is only your Imagination,” they have good reason to do so. When employees are inspired, they spur themselves to higher limits and benchmarks of achievements.
That is when both employees and employers can see real breakthroughs.
Click here to know more about our real-time performance engagement platform, WNS TalentTurfTM