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Lets face it, work can be a slog. And while you might be struggling to engage personally, theres also evidence that youre in good company. All over the world were more disengaged than weve been in years. But even as youre not inspired, motivated, or energized, you know you still have to show up and perform well. So how can you be effective when engagement eludes you? There are some unexpected, but powerful strategies that can help you through. WE ARE DRAGGING Evidence from Gallup shows engagement is at a 10-year low, globally. In fact, only 31% of employees say they are engaged. These are the people who feel enthusiastic about their work. Only 42% say they know whats expected of them at work. And 17% of people are actively disengaged, meaning they feel negative and resentful about their work. It’s reasonable that were not jumping out of bed every morning to show up in the office or onscreen. Were overwhelmed and fearful, and this can make it difficult to throw ourselves fully into our work. In a survey of 32,000 people in 28 countries Edelman found that 88%61% of people were afraid of everything from inflation and economic concerns to climate change, nuclear war, or information war. In addition, theres a lot of uncertainty today. According to DDI, which studied 11,000 leaders, fully 42% of CEOs were concerned about uncertainty. Moreover, in a GlobeScan survey of almost 30,000 people across 31 countries, 78% said they felt that things were changing so fast, they couldnt cope and struggled with anxiety as a result. Its tough to stay engaged when were feeling overloaded, disoriented, or disheartened by so many stressors, but there are ways we can overcome the challenges and bring our best to our work. THINK LONG TERM One of the best ways to perform well, despite feeling disengaged, is to keep the long term in mind. Todays environment might not be great, but doing your best will pay off for a better future. When you perform well, others will notice, and youll be more likely to be selected for the exciting new project or be on the radar when promotion opportunities emerge. In addition, tough times can be great for learning. If you have a subpar manager, you can observe, reflect, and cement your opinions about how not to lead (or how youll lead better someday). Or if your work doesnt fully consume your capacity, you may have extra time to take a class or join an association. You can look at challenging times as opportunities to build your knowledge and resilience for the next phase. Focus on how the work and learning you do today will be an investment in your future. LINK WORK TO YOUR IDENTITY Another lesser-known way to enhance your performance is to link your activities to your sense of yourself. Its healthy to get a sense of identity from your work. In addition to your family, friends, volunteer activities, and personal pursuits, work is one of the ways you express your talents, make a contribution, and reinforce what makes you unique and important. By focusing on who you are, you can find more meaning in your daily tasks. You dont have to do the project just because your boss said you must, youre completing it because youre a brilliant performer. You dont show up for the meeting just because youre on the team, but because youre an innovative thinker and they need your ideas. Thinking of who you are and linking it to why youre taking action, can help you feel motivated by what you value, the value you deliver, and who you are. CULTIVATE A SENSE OF TEAMWORK Another way to increase your motivation to perform well is to remind yourself of how your work impacts others. Its one thing to complete a task and check it off your list, but knowing how it will feed others work can be make a difference to your morale. Even if your responsibilities are largely individual, all work includes some aspects of interdependence. Your coworker is waiting for output from you so she can take the next step. Your colleague needs your input to work on his project. Or theres a customer down the line who will benefit from your portion of the process. We all have an instinct to matter, and knowing we have obligations to others can be motivational when we consider our impacts. MANAGE YOUR WORKFLOW You can also ensure you perform well in the face of less-than-ideal engagement by using tactics that make the work seem more manageable. For example, you can break down a larger responsibility into smaller tasks. Instead of simply telling yourself you have to write the report, consider sub tasks that youll need to accomplish. Give thought to how youll need to research the key topic, summarize the primary ideas, write each chapter, and create recommendations. By separating work into components, youll make it feel less daunting and more doable. You can also be sure that youre focusing on one thing at a time. We lose a lot of time with pings, dings, and interruptions, because multitasking creates the need to reset repeatedly as we shift from one thing to another. But if you can, turn off notifications or change your status to do not disturb, for a period of time. Doing so will help you focus and get things done more effectively. Another surefire way to enhance performance is to plan your tasks based on your own rhythms. Many people are better at analytical or detailed work at the start of their day, when theyre fresh. And then they are stronger with creative or divergent work in the afternoons when theyve been at it for a while. Consider how you work and, as much as possible, plan your tasks based on your energy levels and your assessment of when you can do your best work. You can also boost your performance by taking breaks. Getting away from their desks or taking short brain breaks after finishing key tasks improved productivity for people in studies published in both the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis and in the Journal of Applied Psychology. And breaks can also increase your energy and reduce fatigue, based on another study that was published in Psychological Reports. REDUCE THE PRESSURE Overall, we may put pressure on ourselves to be always-on and supereffective all the time, but were wise to reduce the burden we impose on ourselves. No one is perfect, and its unrealistic to think that well be constantly achieving. This expectation can cause us to feel trapped by unrealistic standards. But if you can remind yourself that no one is flawless, and that youll have good days and bad days, it can help your mood. In addition, you can give yourself permission to do just enough during a period where yor work is less engaging. Theres an old saying that if youre trudging through a swamp, its best to just keep going. Challenges with engagement are like this, too. There may be muck and mosquitos right now, but you can get through to the other side. Keep at it, validate your efforts, and team up with others to support each other. These will help you survive and even thrive.
Category:
E-Commerce
Poor customer service can hurt your business. But just how badly might surprise you. Just ask United Airlines. In 2008, musician Dave Caroll and his band Sons of Maxwell were traveling on United Airlines when the airline allegedly broke Carolls $3,500 Taylor guitar. United Airlines refused to pay for or replace the guitar, so Caroll and his band did what musicians do best. They wrote a song about the incident called United Breaks Guitars which details Carolls frustrating experience with the airlines customer service reps. The song went viral on YouTube with 25 million views (and counting). Travelers who came across the humorous video took to the internet to vent, recounting their own poor experiences with the airline industry, with United Airlines bearing the brunt of the criticism. It may be a coincidence, but a week after the video was posted, United Airlines lost 10% of its stock valuea value of $180 million. In todays age of sky-high digital connectivity, the need for companies to deliver remarkable customer experience has never been more important. While not all customers will be creative enough to record a viral music video detailing their experience with brands, customers can leave product and service reviews on sites like TrustPilot and Yelp, or take to social media and with just one post, share their experiences with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of followers. And, as we have seen with the examples of United Airlines, those negative reviews can have an impact on a companys bottom line. And even though research shows that consumers are more likely to share negative experiences through social media (49%) compared to positive experiences (38%), many companies such as Zappos, Southwest Airlines, and Ritz-Carlton are renowned for their remarkable customer experience. Despite acknowledging that their level of customer experience can make the difference between their companys success and failure, many companies still struggle to provide even mediocre service to their customers. The reason is that these companies treat poor customer service as a core problem to be solved, when poor customer service is actually a symptom of something much more dangerous to their businesses. That something is poor employee engagement. Treat the cause, not just the symptom Each year, companies invest billions of dollars in workplace training. According to Statistica, U.S. companies alone spent US$101.8 billion on training in 2023. And for some pretty good reasons. When employees receive practical and effective customer experience training, they gain valuable skills needed to successfully manage a range of customer interactionsfrom problem-solving customer concerns to answering complex customer queries, resolving issues in a timely manner, and salvaging negative customer experiences and transforming them into positive ones. While customer service training can provide employees with valuable clarity on how they should engage with customers, if the organization treats its employees poorly or has a toxic work culture, much of the training will fall on deaf ears. As Sybil F. Stershic, author of Taking Care of The People Who Matter Most, notes, The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees dont feel valued, neither will your customers. Simply put, companies that invest in customer experience training but dont treat their employees well will often find that their investments result in minimal improvement in their customer experience delivery. Remember, if your employees dont feel valued, neither will your customers. On the other hand, companies that focus on building a highly engaged culture, treating their employees fairly, and valuing their efforts are more likely to benefit from customer experience training. Why? Because when employees are fully engaged and feel valued, they are more likely to want the company to succeed and will do their part to help the company meet its business goals, objectives, and targetsincluding delivering the type of remarkable service that turns casual customers into raving fans of their organizations. This idea that engaged employees deliver better customer service is backed up by research from Gallup, which showed that companies that scored in the top quartile of employee engagement saw 10% higher customer loyalty/engagement compared to companies in the bottom quartile. These companies with higher levels of employee engagement also benefitted from 23% higher profitability. Treat your employees better If your organization is struggling with delivering poor customer experience, the best way to deal with the issue is to focus on both the symptom and the problem with equal measure. Yes, you should most definitely provide your employees with customer experience training, but you should also invest in employee engagement programs that help ensure that employees feel valued. Always remember this simple adage: Your customer experience will never exceed your employee experience. Want to improve your customer experience delivery? Then be relentless in finding ways to treat your employees better. Here are a few examples of how you can make your employees feel appreciated for the work they do: A simple thank you goes a long way towards making employees feel valued. Publicly thank, recognize, and (If necessary) reward them for a job well done. Or, if more conducive to your workplace culture, write them a meaningful thank you note or email. Give them the opportunity to make recommendations on how to make your business stronger. Listen to their ideas and give them credit for any suggestions you decide to implement. Be sure that your employees pay and benefits package is commensurate with the value they bring to the organization. Pay attention to their workload and give them the opportunity to achieve an appropriate work/life balance that reduces the chances of burnout. Treating poor customer experience as the problem rather than the symptom will produce, at best, a temporary increase in customer experience delivery. Only by treating both the symptom and the cause will you achieve the customer experience results your company is working towards. And that starts with treating your employees better.
Category:
E-Commerce
The controversy surrounding Soham Parekh, the software engineer accused of secretly holding multiple jobs, has sparked a predictable backlash against “overemployment.” Parekh’s methodshe reportedly misled multiple employerswere clearly unethical, but this shouldn’t obscure a broader question: Is it time to rethink our antipathy toward employees holding multiple jobs? A double standard? Parekh’s case notwithstanding, there’s a deeper structural issue at play. Why should it be acceptable for some CEOs to hold leadership roles at multiple companies yet unacceptable for a talented marketer or software engineer to have multiple jobs? The world of work has fundamentally changed, and limiting people to one job is an outdated idea that doesnt benefit anyone. Startups have embraced fractional executives; CFOs, CMOs, and other senior positions going part time is now standard practice. However, large corporations continue to address similar needs exclusively through consulting arrangements. This highlights a significant gap in how organizations approach talent acquisition and utilization. This disparity provides valuable context for understanding why employees may resort to undisclosed secondary employment. By establishing clear policies and frameworks for multiple job arrangements, organizations could provide more transparent alternatives to the current trend of covert moonlighting. The gap between evolving work patterns and traditional corporate structures points to an opportunity for more adaptive talent management strategies. The inevitable shift Workers don’t have it easy today. Fresh graduates worry about their job prospects as entry-level roles shift to AI. Warehouse workers face replacement by robots. Large corporations continue to outsource jobs to cheaper sources of labor. We need to tilt the scales back in favor of workers and create an environment where talented and productive people can make a better living. By removing the taboo of overemployment, we would create an environment where honesty is rewarded over secrecy. AI is only going to make performing multiple jobs (a lot) easier. We should get ahead of this trend and bring it out into the open instead of pretending it won’t happen. How many other Soham Parekhs are out there today, perhaps working at your own company? We really have no idea, but there are likely to be more of them moving forward. Toward mutual benefit This isn’t just about employee flexibility; it could be a win for employers who are struggling to retain talent amid strict return-to-office mandates (another antiquated idea). It would allow enterprises to become more agile, tapping into top-tier talent only when needed. Furthermore, this shift would encourage a focus on outcomes and productivity rather than just managing hours in the office. The root cause of overemployment isnt that its unethical, its that were forcing it underground. The real scandal isnt workers maximizing their earning potential; its employers clinging to the primitive concepts that they own their employees entire productive capacity. Transparent overemployment could actually strengthen the job market. Imagine if companies had to compete not just on salary, but on being the kind of workplace that actually cares about the employee experience. While we can all acknowledge the shift in traditional corporate jobs isnt going to be easy or happen overnight, we must also accept that the current system punishes honesty and rewards deception. Weve turned competent professionals into corporate double agents. This isnt sustainable, and its certainly not efficient. The question isnt whether overemployment will continue, its whether well legitimize it before the whole charade collapses under its own absurdity. The industrial age is dead, but were still using its rule book. While AI copilots and agentic workflows obliterate the tedious grunt work that once consumed entire careers, were clinging to antiquated notions of what constitutes a full-time commitment. The math is brutal: If machines can handle the repetitive tasks that fill 40-hour weeks, why are we pretending humans still need to be chained to single desks?
Category:
E-Commerce
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