Enthusiasm Leadership

Employee satisfaction? That's not enough! Satisfaction makes people ponderous and comfortable. The desire for change is low. Intensity of action and emotional tension are low. Lack of identification and indifference set in. Finally, a resigned inertia spreads. This indifferent mentality leads to disinterest, carelessness and lack of diligence. In this state, employees are only half-heartedly committed to the needs of the customer, they show little initiative in fulfilling special requests and little creativity in solving problems.

Satisfaction does not produce motivation

Resigned satisfaction will occur above all where employees have little room for manoeuvre, where they are not involved entrepreneurially, where their opinions do not count and their ideas are unwanted. Such a lack of perspective makes Lange-

Satisfied and no matter

The will to work and the willingness to take responsibility dwindle, and people make themselves comfortable. Satisfaction produces sitting, but no motivation. Only satisfied employees - like only satisfied customers - leave at the next best opportunity. And on the web they tell the whole world why this is so. Companies need enthusiastic leadership. Enthusiastically motivated employees ensure high productivity, a fluid pace of work and high quality. They enjoy excellence and want success. This positive energy is literally captured in the products that the buyer ultimately purchases. In service industries, an employee's state of mind is even visibly expressed in every little gesture. Enthusiastic employees make customer experiences cheerful, unmotivated employees turn them into torture.

Employees as enthusiastic ambassadors

Enthusiastically motivated employees also ensure greater cost efficiency, as they get the job done more quickly and the frequency of errors decreases. They are more creative and contribute new ideas. But above all: as committed ambassadors, they project a positive corporate image to the outside world. This not only motivates potential top applicants to take an interest in the company, it also motivates customers to buy again and again with pleasure.

Disappointment, OK and enthusiasm factors

"Some people cause happiness and joy wherever they go. Others, when they go." Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said that. For bosses, of course, the same is true. So there are those where a dark cloud settles over everything just by walking into the room, and everyone reacts as if frothing at the mouth. And then there are those who provide you with cheerfulness for hours, and everything starts to grow and bubble. I wonder who provides the better results in the long run? At every point of contact (touchpoint) between manager and employee, I therefore recommend that behaviour and procedures be

Employee Touchpoints

The best way to do this is to work together as a management team to identify "disappointment, OK and enthusiasm criteria". This is done in the following three steps:

• What we as leaders must not do under any circumstances
• Our minimum standard (= the zero line)
• What we can - and should - do at best.

To this end, all contact points that occur must first be listed, whereby these can be both direct touchpoints (employee interview, greeting in the hallway, meeting, etc.) and indirect touchpoints (e-mail, written instruction, job reference, etc.). These are then optimized in the direction of enthusiasm.

An example from daily management work

This example is about an appraisal interview, which is examined with regard to the criteria "disappointing ", "OK", "inspiring".

Case 1: The manager quotes an employee to him and says: "Mr. X, it's about your sales report from last week. I must be very surprised about the form of presentation, it does not correspond to the specified report structure. In addition, you have again not fulfilled the minimum number of weekly customer visits. That's not the way to do it. I'm beginning to get the impression that you can't and won't. And you don't have to grin like that. So, if this doesn't get better, there will be unpleasant consequences for you!"

Such an approach is disappointing in every respect. The employee is personally attacked and threatened. Is he motivated to improve his performance? If so, then at most out of fear of punishment - and then only with short-lived success. For he who makes his people puppets of his instructions breeds mental cripples.

Case 2: The same situation and a procedure called "non-violent communication" (text by Günter Seemann): "Mr X, I would like to talk to you about your last work report. Firstly, I have noticed that you are using your own report form and secondly, you have not reached the set minimum number of weekly client visits. This frustrated me on the one hand and disappointed me on the other, because it is important to me that everyone adheres to the established reporting structure, as this gives me an immediate overview. However, it is particularly important to me that everyone achieves the minimum number of customer visits, because that gives

Enthusiasm is contagious

to give me the certainty that we are fulfilling our care mandate towards our customers. Therefore, I would like to ask that in the future you prepare your report according to the agreed structure and that you do not fall below the minimum number of client visits. Is that okay with you?"

This procedure is o.k. If you put yourself in the employee's place, he certainly feels affected, but not attacked, and he knows what is expected of him. But is he also motivated? And enthusiastic?

Case Three: You say: "Mr X, I would like to talk to you about your last work report. I have noticed that you are using your own report form. Also, you did not meet the set minimum number of weekly client visits. To help me understand, I'm interested in your perspective on this. " Now pause to allow the employee to talk. Depending on the answer, continue as follows: "Thank you, that makes things clearer for me. Now I need a suggestion from you on how to optimize both in the future." This time, take a long pause to give the employee time to think and talk. Depending on the answer, you then say, "Yes, that sounds good. Can we write it down like this (nodding in a friendly manner as we do so)? Please come by next Wednesday, I'm very interested in the interim status. And thank you, Mr. X, for being so committed to the cause."

This approach is inspiring. The employee was not given anything, he found the solution himself. Self-organisation and personal responsibility are thus ensured. To ensure consistency and reliability and to increase the probability of implementation, the agreed procedure is recorded in writing. In addition, the boss shows interest in the interim result and thus remains closely involved in the topic. The encouragement at the end opens and motivates. Important: Show emotions! Your people want and must know, how it goes "man" high-level personnel. A poker face is indispensable in a poker game, but it is extremely harmful in an appraisal interview.

My Baby Effect

Conclusion in terms of enthusiasm leadership

No matter what the task: At all employee touchpoints, leadership situations can be created according to the scheme:

• What's disappointing?
• What's okay?
• What is inspiring? in theory, in order to find optimal target procedures. This is almost like emotion management, which is increasingly required not only in customer contact, but also in management work. Together with colleagues, a wide range of possibilities can be found.

Incidentally, it is also worthwhile to solicit suggestions from employees in this regard. This not only increases their willingness to perform, but also reduces the fluctuation tendency of key performers, both of which are very welcome from a business perspective. Asking employees about, involving them in and integrating them into the company in everything that ultimately affects them creates the "my baby effect". And as we all know, you don't abandon your baby.