Tying Staff Satisfaction to Increasing Your Bottom Line

Imagine knowing that by simply increasing the level of staff satisfaction in your company, you could increase revenues.

Connecting an increase in a company’s success to an upbeat, positive, energized workplace has been made by many business pundits over the years. But a study done in 2001 by Lyle Spencer for the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations found that "for every 1 percent improvement in the service climate, there’s a 2 percent increase in revenue.”

That little known fact catches the CEOs I work with off guard every time.

A client I was working with was very frustrated. His company had steadily increased profitability over the years then it hit a plateau and nothing he did worked. In his mind, the problem was a financial one and so the help he sought focused on his business design. When I started working with him, it became clear early on that his was a leadership competency issue.

This guy had as much empathy for his staff as a politician has for his opponent. In a word – zero.

His perception of his staff was fairly negative. He had not developed a strong vision for the company, had not articulated any values and took the attitude that people should be able to do the job they were hired for. Consistent communication, recognition of effort, providing feedback didn’t exist. And he didn’t see any reason why it should.

The importance of understanding how leadership competencies affect a leader’s ability to grow their business has been well documented. Studies support that the more emotionally aware a leader is, the more successful they will be.

The challenge? To become more self-aware requires a leader to want to seek the truth about how they come across as a leader. Those that test reality, assess themselves and allow others to assess them, have the greatest opportunity to change, grow and become a leader others want to follow.

Unfortunately, my client with the declining profits felt becoming more self-aware, exploring his own strengths and limits, guiding his company with a compelling vision wasn’t near as important as determining how to trim the fat in his organization by cutting back on staff. A company with already low morale now added fear to their water cooler talk and production slipped even further.

Another client refused to address the lagging performance of a new hire. Three months into this employee’s employment, the leader was going to let them go. She called me for advice. Pushed to admit she hadn’t had any difficult talks with this employee in the three months of their employ, she admitted to being terrified of conflict. Conflict management, another competency that you can learn, was not a competency this leader had mastered. Feel for this employee who heard a very difficult message for the first and last time, at least at this company.

A leader who brings a level of self-awareness to their leadership capabilities will be a more successful leader. Why? Because developing effective relationship management skills is a magnet to getting and keeping exceptional people. And the good news is that these leadership competencies are not innate talents, but learned abilities and each of these competencies have the ability to make leaders more effective.

The following competencies are from the book Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman. A must read for any leader who wants to improve their bottom line.

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• Emotional self-awareness: Reading one’s own emotions and recognizing their impact on others
• Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one’s strengths and limits
• Self-confidence: Having a sound sense of one’s self worth and capabilities
• Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control
• Transparency: Displaying honesty and integrity, trustworthiness
• Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles
• Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
• Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities
• Optimism: Seeing the upside in events
• Empathy: Sensing other’s emotions
• Organizational awareness: Reading the currents at the organizational level
• Service: Recognizing and meeting staff and customer needs
• Inspirational leadership: Guiding and motivating with a compelling vision
• Influence: Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion
• Developing others: Bolstering others’ abilities through feedback
• Change catalyst: Initiating, managing and leading in a new direction
• Conflict management: Resolving disagreements
• Teamwork and collaboration: Cooperation and team building

Our research supports the fact that a self-aware leader is a better leader. By understanding which competencies you are strong in and which ones need attention, you are setting your company on a path to success.

Are you ready to increase your service climate in order to increase your revenues?