Managing Organizations

Balancing
Needs andthe Company’s
Employee
Satisfaction
by Ron Carucci
November 01, 2019

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images

Summary.   As a senior leader, doing what is right for your company and doing
what will make your employees happiest are not always mutually exclusive. This
paradox can make seemingly obvious choices difficult to make. To find a balance,
you need to change your mindset by first remembering that supervisors and middle
managers have more direct influence over the factors that impact employee
satisfaction and are best equipped to address it. You should instead use your
power to up employee engagement by creating inclusive work environments in
which everyone is given a chance to contribute to their fullest potential, and
finding ways to provide junior employees with visibility opportunities. close

My client, Megan, was facing a major customer challenge at her

company. She and her department heads held a meeting to strategize
how to address it. Once they had finished outlining an ambitious
plan, her colleague exhaled, “We need to be careful about how we
communicate this to our teams. We’re asking them to do a lot of extra
work. Everyone is going to be unhappy about that.” The company’s
engagement scores had taken a hit earlier that year, and her colleague
feared this change would only make things worse.
Though Megan kept her cool during the meeting, she vented to me
shortly after. “I’m trying to help weather a crisis here,” she said, “and
he wants me to worry about people being happy?”
Megan’s question brings up a dilemma that is common for most
executives. Senior employees often have the power to make decisions
that will significantly impact the collective work experience of the
people below them, but at the same time, they are removed from
those people. This is largely because, as employees rise within their
organization, their responsibilities shift from considering how their
team feels to shaping organizational ethos. Doing what is right for
their company and doing what will make their employees happiest
are not always mutually exclusive.
This paradox can make seemingly obvious choices difficult to make.
People at the top often get exaggerated, anecdotal opinions about
how people at the bottom are feeling about any given issue.
“Everyone is going to be unhappy,” for example, is likely not true.
Further complicating the issue —  employee engagement surveys
aggregate feedback into large clusters, making it challenging for
executives to weigh accurate data into their decisions.
Many senior leaders, as a consequence, have a fear of being viewed as
cold or uncaring. When this fear takes over, they can become over-
sensitive and start to personalize the unhappiness of others. To move
past this fear and become better leaders, people in positions of power
need to find a balance between making decisions that serve the
greater good of their organizations while still remaining appropriately
concerned about the emotional wellbeing of those below them. In my
experience consulting with executives on how to find this balance,
I’ve found that making the following shifts in mindset are particularly
important.
From individual happiness to collective purpose. Many senior
leaders take it personally when they learn people in their organization
are unhappy. They forget that supervisors and middle managers have
more direct influence over the factors that impact employee
satisfaction and are best equipped to address it. As leaders move up
and become further removed from these responsibilities, using their
power to foster a deeper sense of purpose throughout their division
or department is the greatest contribution they can make. Plenty of
research shows that when people are able to connect the purpose of
their organization to their purpose as individuals, they are happier
and more engaged at work. Senior leaders are in a unique position to
help them do this.
Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, serves as an example. He and his
leadership team held an intimate discussion in which they each spoke
about what they want to achieve through their work. The goal of the
conversation was to help them figure out how the Microsoft platform
could help them realize their senses of purpose. The company’s Chief
People Officer, Kathleen Hogan, told me:
 “The ability to connect our own purpose to the mission sustains
us. When you can zoom out and see how we are making a
difference, that’s energizing in the face of the day-to-day
challenges. While strategy will evolve, your culture and sense of
purpose should be long-lasting. Culture paired with a purpose-
driven mission allows your employees to use your company
platform to realize their own aspirations and passions.”

Microsoft makes this a priority by providing their 18,000 leaders with

tools and processes to engage those they lead.
From engagement to ownership. Many companies have resorted to
things like free lunches, onsite fitness and daycare centers, or
meditation rooms to express care for their employees. While some of
these benefits certainly improve the employee experience, they do
little to up employee engagement, and therefore, happiness.
Rather than relying on perks, senior leaders should prioritize creating
inclusive work environments in which everyone is given a chance to
contribute to their fullest potential. Ensuring that governance
systems allow employees to solve the problems they directly touch is
the first step. When people are able to participate in making decisions
that directly impact their work, their sense of ownership, and
therefore, engagement increases.
Take the example of one organization I worked with. A company-
wide assessment revealed that the majority of their employees felt
ambivalent, disempowered, and cynical about their work. The senior
leader I was consulting proposed a solution. She wanted to schedule a
series of town hall meetings and luncheons to re-energize her people.
However, I warned her this plan would fail. Her employees didn’t
need to hear a motivational speech. They needed her leadership team
to align on major initiatives and deliver consistent messages. In order
to accomplish this, she had to stop micromanaging and give more
ownership to the people below her.
Instead of resorting to her initial quick-fix solution, she did what only
senior leaders have the power to do — she reshaped the organization
to improve the experiences, and performance, of her people. She
developed “live hack sessions” facilitated by middle managers in
which workers could discuss real issues and brainstorm ways to
resolve them. Next, she overhauled governance systems. Decision-
making processes were pushed lower in the organization and
supervisors were provided with the resources they needed to carry
out solutions. Finally, she initiated customer panel groups that
allowed employees to hear about the successes and failures within
their specific markets. This helped dramatically restore a sense of
pride and personal ownership throughout her division.
From promotability to visibility. A dead-end job, or feeling like you
are in one, is a significant source of employee unhappiness. When
people sense that their career has stalled, they often assume senior
leadership has the power to fix it. In fact, the mere opportunity to
express their concerns to a senior leader can result in an unrealistic
expectation that things will change. Solutions like skip-level meetings
— where senior leaders meet with employees many levels below them
— tend to exaggerate the problem. Executives often hear about
frustrations that they are unable to fix without disempowering or
sidestepping the leaders between them and the employees with whom
they are talking.
This is not to say that meeting employees where they are at is not
valuable. Efforts like skip-level meeting and visits to manufacturing
plants can lead to important mentorships and learning opportunities
for junior workers. But when it comes to career development issues,
senior leaders often cannot realistically address them.
They are, however, in a unique position to create visibility for those
employees who might not otherwise get noticed. That’s why leaders
should focus instead on giving individual contributors a chance to
showcase their accomplishments to the people above them. One
powerful solution is to invite lower level talent into higher level
meetings. This is a great way for executives at the top to meet and
enjoy the perspectives and contributions of people they would never
know otherwise.
One CEO I’ve worked has done just this. He has a standing talent
showcase on his executive team agenda. Each month, two members of
his team invite someone from their respective departments to an
informal conversation with the senior team during which they talk
about the projects they are most proud of, as well as their day-to-day
challenges. The junior employees leave feeling highly regarded by the
company’s top leaders. The ritual began after the company’s annual
talent review process a few years ago, when the CEO said, “If we’re
going to talk about these people, we should extend the courtesy of
meeting them to learn about their work, so they can hear first-hand
why they matter to us.”
Leaders naturally want to see those in their organization happy and
thriving. As you rise higher, how you’re able to act on that desire
must shift. While you can attend to the needs of your direct reports,
you must leave the individual experiences of everyone else to them.
Instead, learn to enjoy the unique opportunity you have to shape the
collective wellbeing of your organization through fostering purpose,
deepening ownership, and enhancing visibility.

Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner

at Navalent, working with CEOs and executives
pursuing transformational change. He is the
bestselling author of eight books, including To Be
Honest and Rising to Power. Connect with him on
Linked In at RonCarucci, and download his free
“How Honest is My Team?” assessment.