Diffusion to lead or not to lead?
HR leaders are constantly hitting the employee engagement drum with good reason. Asides from the statistics that show the growing number of disengaged employees globally, it is evident that engaged employees are more likely to stay focused, motivated, committed to their work and self-driven to achieve the goals of the business.
The same way these engagement characteristics can be ‘contagious’ in the positive sense, disengaged employees can also ‘infect’ others with their lack of interest in their job and work, ultimately impact everything negatively from customer service to sales, quality, productivity, retention and other critical business areas.
If you only thought the diffusion phenomenon was confined to the movement of gases from areas of higher concentration to places of lower concentration, then think again. Diffusion also happens in the workplace amongst employees. As a matter of fact, it’s happening in your organisation as you read this article.
The disposition of an employee to his or her job can be contagious. It can spread and affect others either positively or negatively. Beyond salary, psychological and social fulfilment can determine which employees are motivated to stay, perform, and contribute to organisation success. Supervisors that nail employee engagement understand that creating an atmosphere where high performance aligns with talent and business strategy requires working on not only increasing employee engagement but ensuring that engagement is sustained.
Disengaged employees must not be ignored. Depending on the level of “negative” diffusion happening in your organisation, it has the potential of spreading to others. Ignoring issues is not the best way to deal with it. Confrontation can be hard but it is a reliable way of addressing what needs to change.
Lessons for leaders from the five things that influence the rate of diffusion:
Concentration: How palpable is engagement or disengagement at your organisation? In your team, do you just dip stick with the annual and biennial employee surveys? Explore stay interviews as a start.
Size of molecule involved: Does everyone’s idea count or only those with a big title or size of office. Is innovation and creativity already being stifled due to hierarchical structures?
Temperature: What’s the culture in your team? Is the temperature warm, just plain cold or boiling hot?
Solubility of the molecule: Are your leaders thick-skinned because people manager responsibilities don’t ‘really’ count at your organisation?
Distance the molecule has to travel: (“Diffusion is a very efficient way to transport molecules over short intracellular distances, but is inadequate for transporting molecules even over mm to cm distances”) – What got your organisation to the engagement level you enjoy today is not the required energy to sustain and take it to the next growth phase.
Deepen the leadership pipeline in your organisation and enable leaders who trigger workplace diffusion.
Leadership food for thought: What would you do if it was up to you?