The Power of Small Wins

Last week I attended two sessions with approximately 240 leaders between DFW and OK on the topic of our newest best-seller, The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  Our global Execution Practice Leader and the main contributing author, Chris McChesney, delivered a great keynote.

One thing that stood out to me and many of our guests was the thought that increasing Employee Engagement can be accomplished by giving your front line contributors a “winnable game.”  Chris explained that the “day job” (aka: Whirlwind) will never be beaten.  You can give the whirlwind 40 hours, 50 hours or more and even your weekends, and it will take all you can give it and not really give you anything in return.

But, in addition to the whirlwind, if leaders will give employees ONE THING related to behavior change strategy to focus on each week, you can engage employees like never before.  Chris also quoted an  article from HBR in May 2011 titled, The Power of Small Wins by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.”  Read the fullarticle here.

“If you are a manager, the progress principle holds clear implications for where to focus your efforts. It suggests that you have more influence than you may realize over employees’ well-being, motivation, and creative output. Knowing what serves to catalyze and nourish progress—and what does the opposite—turns out to be the key to effectively managing people and their work.”

 

For more details on executing strategy, consider picking up a copy of The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  You’ll be glad you did!

Creating wins for organizations one team at a time,

John Vakidis

 

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