The Art of Enchantment
A recent Gallup poll showed that 70% of employees are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work — many leaders are looking for solutions. What are the effective drivers of long-term well-being?
Enchantment defines a relationship with employees that is deep, delightful, and long-lasting. If you can enchant your employees, they will work harder, longer, and smarter for you — and, ideally, you for them too. Here are the 4 top best ways to enchant your employees.
- Define your EX (Employee Experience): Think of the employee experience the same as a user experience (UX). Create a map of your company’s own signature employee experience.
- Use Rituals: Rituals combine the power of consistency and habits with the weight of emotional significance. Do something together and do it again and again. Repetition, as seen from the psychology of music, enchants the brain.
- Empower them to do what’s right: A logical offshoot of autonomous work is that you trust your employee enough to make the right decision for customers. When you show this level of trust and empower employees, they do the best work that they can.
- Celebrate success. When your organization succeeds, take some time out to celebrate. Relentless toil in the face of success (or failure) is over-rated. And the best kind of success, and the best way to celebrate success, is as a group.
Enchantment remains by its very nature an occasional peak experience. It cannot be measured or perfectly engineered. But without it we become emotional zombies, even if we’re generally “happy at work.” Companies must recognize this and work harder to enchant employees.
Reading Material: Harvard Business Review
Make IT Delightful, and Other Ways to Enchant Your Employees by Tim Leberecht
Enchant Your Employees by Guy Kawasaki
How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation by Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi