£nÊU "
E
, 9
«ÞiiÊ,i>ÌÃ
KF JL::<<; @E KF;8PËJ ?PG<I:FDG<K@K@M<
economy, companies need their employees
to perform their jobs well day in and day
out. Great performance starts with great
leadership, which means that your supervi-
sors play a vital role in how your company
performs.
Oil & Energy
recently caught up with
TJ Titcomb, an Organizational Develop-
ment Consultant for Cargas Systems, for
an in-depth conversation about employee
relations. She touched on leadership, posi-
tive and negative feedback, changing job
descriptions, goal setting, and much more.
N_Xk Xi\ jfd\ f] k_\ b\p ZfdgXep
gXpYXZbj ]fi `em\jk`e^ `e \dgcfp\\j
Xe[ \dgcfp\\ i\cXk`fej6
The companies in your audience pretty
much sell the same products as their com-
petitors. All that separates them is how well
they deliver their services and products, and
that depends on the quality of the people.
If those people are not feeling respected,
we run a much greater risk of losing them.
Companies can’t afford to lose good people.
Companies will readily invest in upgrades
for truck fleets and software, but often balk
at similar investments in their employees.
Leaders need to remember that it is
employees who make the difference in how
well they succeed.
N_Xk ZXe \dgcfp\ij [f kf `dgifm\
ZfdgXep g\i]fidXeZ\ Yp `dgifm`e^
\dgcfp\\ dfk`mXk`fe6
One of the things I stress a lot in super-
visor training is that you can’t motivate
another person. Motivation comes from
within – it’s something a person does to
himself. What managers and supervisors
can do is
influence
motivation. Get to know
each individual’s interests, needs and
drives. Provide opportunities and target
conversations to tap into these unique
motivators. Recognize each person’s efforts
and commitment. Your efforts will pay off
in how your team performs on the job.
If they believe their work is appreciated
by leadership, they are more likely to deal
effectively with demanding, frustrating
customers. They’ll be more likely to keep
their cool and promote a good image of
the company if they feel the company has
their back.
Think about the last time you were in
a store. You probably got clear glimpses of
how the employees are treated by manage-
ment by how they treat the customers.
If they won’t attend to you, you figure that’s
what they learned from management. If we
want employees to provide quality services,
they have to see that from every person in
leadership.
It’s also important to recognize when
motivational efforts don’t make sense. If you
have an employee who just doesn’t care, he
needs to be moved out of the organization
as quickly as possible. There is nothing you
can do to force a person to care. Keeping
him can not only affect the level of your
service but also have a negative impact on
the other members of the team.
?fn `dgfikXek `j `k ]fi \dgcfp\\j kf
le[\ijkXe[ k_\ ZfdgXepËj d`jj`fe Xe[
gi`fi`k`\j6 N_Xk Xi\ jfd\ jk\gj k_Xk fne\ij
ZXe kXb\ kf _\cg \dgcfp\\j le[\ijkXe[ n_Xk
`j e\\[\[6
Employee engagement can be defined
as the extra effort that employees put forth,
even when no one is watching. In the last
20 years, extensive research has shown
that, when a person feels truly connected
to something, he or she is willing to go
above and beyond and provide extraordi-
nary service.
One way to promote this connection
is to make sure everyone understands the
“why” behind what is being asked and the
bigger picture. In the old days, workers
may have simply done what they were
told, but things are much more complex
in today’s world. Now employees want to
understand the purpose behind the task
and the reasoning that goes into setting
priorities. That’s why it’s important to not
just talk about what we’re doing but why.
To be effective, leaders need to start with
true dialogue, not lectures. That is often
the biggest mistake: talking
at
employees.
There needs to be conversation.
The connection becomes deeper
when the employees become involved in
the process of setting priorities. Cargas
Systems has an engaged workforce, in
part because we have processes in place
to make sure that happens. We’re now
setting goals for next year, and this is not
done by the executives; it starts at the level
of the work teams as they start defining
what the needs are. We also have an
interactive process called Ideas Unlimited
where any employee or small group can
put together a 10-minute presentation on
a new approach or an improvement sug-
gestion. These ideas are often where our
new initiatives come from.
N_Xk `j k_\ gXpf]] ]fi \dgcfp\ij f] ^\kk`e^
\dgcfp\\j dfi\ `emfcm\[ `e j\kk`e^ ^fXcj6
People start to take more ownership.
When they’re confronted with a problem,
:fek`el\[ ¿
Elikli\ Pfli Nfib]fiZ\
Cargas’ TJ Titcomb offers advice on leading the company to greater success
