PDF Summary:Inspire Greatness, by Matt Tenney

Despite significant research and resources dedicated to improving employee engagement, most companies have failed to move the needle on this critical issue—engagement levels have remained stagnant for the past two decades. But highly engaged teams deliver substantial benefits, outperforming their less engaged counterparts in areas like profitability, safety, and retention.

In Inspire Greatness, Matt Tenney argues that true engagement is driven by leadership, not HR programs. Drawing from decades of research, he identifies 14 fundamental employee needs leaders must fulfill, such as trust, autonomy, and growth. The book provides a framework for leaders to solicit regular feedback and develop habits to meet these needs, fostering lasting improvements in engagement and organizational performance.

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• The concept of purpose can be subjective and vary greatly between individuals; what is purposeful for one person may not hold the same meaning for another.
• Trust can be exploited by unscrupulous leaders, leading to manipulation or abuse of power.
• Prioritizing physical and emotional well-being may sometimes conflict with other business objectives, such as cost reduction or meeting tight deadlines, which can be critical for a company's survival.

Feedback On Team Needs Being Met

Tenney contends that effective leadership involves understanding how well these fundamental needs are being fulfilled within the team. Leaders must actively solicit input from their teams on these specific areas. Using the example from Thich Nhat Hanh, who actively sought feedback from people experiencing suffering during the Vietnam War, he advocates for an environment of open dialogue and sharing input. To alleviate the discomfort employees often feel when giving their bosses constructive feedback, the author suggests anonymous feedback mechanisms such as brief, regular questionnaires centered on their immediate supervisors' conduct.

Practical Tips

• Implement a rotating 'team consultant' role where each week, a different team member is given the opportunity to provide input on a specific area of a project they don't usually work on. This cross-pollination of ideas can lead to innovative solutions and gives everyone a sense of ownership and contribution beyond their usual scope.
• Create a "Feedback Box" in your living space or among a group of friends where individuals can anonymously drop suggestions or concerns. Periodically review the contents together and discuss them openly. This can encourage those who are shy or reluctant to voice their opinions in person to contribute their ideas, fostering a more inclusive environment.

Impact of Engaged Workforce and Factors for Positive Workplace Culture

Engaged Teams Outperform Less Engaged Ones

The following section explores how an engaged workforce can affect a business and the key elements that foster its development.

Engaged Workers Are More Productive, Profitable, Safer, and Loyal

Tenney uses two examples to highlight the positive impacts of employees being highly engaged on a company. The first is from research that shows companies whose employees are very engaged experience a 147% increase in per-share profits. The second is from the company Fields Law, where, after instituting a four-day-a-week schedule, the company realized a decrease in employee turnover of over 45% in six months, resulting in a cost savings of $2.4 million while simultaneously improving employee well-being. He also cites research demonstrating that businesses in the top 25% of employee engagement levels experience 18% better productivity (sales), safer work environments (36% fewer safety incidents), and higher profit margins (23% better margins) than companies in the bottom 25th percentile.

Context

• Per-share profit, or earnings per share (EPS), is a financial metric that indicates the profitability of a company allocated to each outstanding share of common stock, often used by investors to gauge a company's financial health.
• The four-day workweek is a flexible work arrangement where employees work fewer days but often maintain the same number of hours per week, typically by working longer days. This model aims to improve work-life balance and increase job satisfaction.
• Employee engagement refers to the emotional commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its goals. Engaged employees are typically more motivated and willing to go above and beyond in their roles.

Fostering a Positive, Trust-Based Culture Drives Engagement

This section examines the crucial aspects of creating a work environment that promotes employee engagement, focusing on the key needs of belonging and trust.

Trust, according to Tenney, propels top-performing groups. Referencing a report from Great Place To Work, he emphasizes that high-trust work environments fuel collaborative knowledge sharing, leading to impressive stock returns (two to three times the industry average) and turnover rates half that of competitors. Using his own experience at Infinite Energy, the author illustrates how leaders who continually demonstrate integrity and ethical practices foster a culture of trust, boosting employee loyalty and organizational capacity for success.

Meaningful relationships where people care about one another are essential not only in personal life but also in the workplace. Drawing upon the Adult Development Study at Harvard, Tenney reveals how the presence of close relationships is associated with greater happiness and physical well-being. The author also draws upon findings by Gallup showing that organizations where team members have strong relationships experience demonstrably better business outcomes, including: 28% fewer accidents, a 5% boost in customer engagement, and 10% more profit. He points to WD-40's "tribal culture" as a successful instance of a high-performing team built around authentic belonging and genuine care for each other.

Practical Tips

• Implement a "No Hidden Agendas" policy in your personal and professional life. Make a conscious effort to communicate your intentions and expectations clearly in all interactions. For example, if you're delegating a task, explain not just what you need done, but why it's important and how it fits into the bigger picture. This clarity can prevent misunderstandings and foster a sense of trust among those you interact with.
• Create a 'knowledge relay' challenge where each team member is tasked with learning something new from a colleague and then teaching it to someone else. This game-like approach incentivizes knowledge sharing in a fun, engaging way and can lead to a more collaborative atmosphere, as each person becomes both a learner and a teacher.
• Volunteer for a role that requires a high level of integrity, such as a treasurer for a local club or a board member for a nonprofit. These positions often come with the responsibility of managing funds or making decisions that affect others. Taking on such a role will not only put your ethical practices to the test but also provide a tangible way to demonstrate your commitment to integrity to yourself and others.
• Create a "Trust Challenge" with a colleague where you both commit to one act of trust-building each week, such as sharing a professional vulnerability or supporting each other's decisions in a team meeting. This mutual commitment can strengthen your working relationship and set an example for others.
• Start a "one new thing" routine with someone in your life. Once a month, plan an activity with a friend, family member, or coworker that neither of you has tried before. This could be anything from a cooking class to a virtual reality experience. Shared new experiences can strengthen bonds by creating unique memories and facilitating growth together.
• Create a "Connection Jar" filled with prompts for meaningful conversations to use during gatherings or one-on-one meetings with loved ones. Each slip of paper could have a question or topic that encourages deeper discussions, such as "What's something you've overcome that you're proud of?" or "What's a dream you've always had?" This practice can help foster closer relationships and enrich your interactions.
• Start a "Lunch Roulette" program at your workplace where employees from different departments are randomly paired to have lunch together once a month. This encourages the formation of new relationships across the organization, fostering a more interconnected company culture. For example, you could use a simple random name picker tool online to create these pairings, ensuring that over time, everyone gets the chance to meet someone new.
• Introduce safety moments at the beginning of meetings or shifts where team members share personal stories or tips related to safety. This practice not only emphasizes the importance of safety in the workplace but also allows team members to connect on a personal level, reinforcing the idea that everyone plays a role in creating a safer work environment.
• Implement a "Kudos Corner" in your workspace or online platform where team members can leave notes of appreciation for each other. Encourage everyone to acknowledge small acts of kindness or successful collaborations. This could be as simple as sticky notes on a bulletin board or a dedicated channel in a team communication app. Recognizing each other's contributions reinforces the feeling of being valued and cared for within the team.

Innovative Insights and Habit Development for Health and Growth

Annual Engagement Surveys Can Harm Engagement

This section tackles the shortcomings of traditional, large-scale yearly surveys that measure engagement levels among employees and presents a more agile, impactful way to offer feedback and develop habits.

Frequent Feedback Paired With Developing Leadership Skills Works Better

Tenney criticizes the conventional practice of conducting extensive yearly surveys to assess how engaged employees are, arguing that they often prove ineffective and can even be counterproductive. He argues yearly surveys create three primary problems: an overload of information, focus on wrong variables, and questions that don't result in actionable outcomes. He contends that these assessments often become overwhelming for leadership, leading to inaction or a focus on superficial perks rather than addressing core behavioral issues within management. He also states that the extended time between feedback and action erodes trust and nullifies all improvements implemented. Additionally, he draws a parallel with athletics, where frequent, timely feedback is an integral part of performance improvement, emphasizing that a similar principle should apply to developing leaders.

He proposes a more efficient solution involving short, focused, anonymous surveys conducted biweekly, targeting specific actions of immediate supervisors linked to those fourteen fundamental needs. This enables rapid action and habit formation, creating a beneficial cycle of feedback, action, and trust-building. Tenney recommends sending these surveys out every two weeks, asking for feedback on only one need (two max) at a time, and having training available, focused on that need, for employees to consume within two-three days after the survey closes.

Practical Tips

• Shift to micro-feedback sessions by asking for immediate, specific feedback after key events or meetings. This approach reduces the burden of annual surveys by integrating feedback into daily work life. For example, after a project presentation, you could ask your colleagues for their thoughts on the effectiveness of your communication rather than waiting for an end-of-year survey.
• Implement a "feedback Friday" routine with friends or family where you discuss the week's events and provide constructive feedback to each other. This can be a casual conversation over dinner where everyone gets the chance to reflect on the week, offer advice, and plan improvements for the upcoming week, ensuring that feedback is timely and actionable.
• Create a personal feedback app using no-code tools to track your daily activities and performance. No-code platforms like Glide or Adalo allow you to build custom apps without programming knowledge. Use the app to log your daily tasks, rate your performance, and set reminders for self-review at regular intervals. This way, you can self-assess and adjust your actions promptly, much like an athlete reviews their training sessions.
• Organize informal virtual coffee breaks where small groups of employees can discuss their survey responses with a neutral facilitator. These sessions can provide a safe space for employees to elaborate on their survey answers and share more nuanced feedback about their supervisors' actions. The facilitator can then anonymize and compile the insights to supplement the survey data.
• Partner with a friend or family member to establish a mutual accountability system. Share your biweekly survey results with them and discuss your plans for habit formation and rapid action. This partnership can provide you with external motivation and a sounding board for your ideas. It can also help you stay committed to your goals, as you'll be less likely to let someone else down than yourself.
• Use a free online tool like Google Forms to design your surveys. Customize your surveys to include questions that are directly related to the one or two needs you're focusing on. For instance, if you're looking to enhance customer satisfaction, your survey could include questions about the speed and quality of service. Analyze the responses using the built-in analytics to make informed decisions about changes to implement.
• Partner with on-demand training providers to have a library of relevant courses ready to deploy immediately after survey results are in. This could involve setting up accounts with online learning platforms where courses are pre-selected based on anticipated training needs. When the survey closes, you can quickly assign the most pertinent courses to employees based on the feedback.

Leaders Must Develop Habits to Transform Leadership Development Into an Ongoing Process for Lasting Behavior Change

Tenney asserts that leadership development shouldn't be considered a short-term initiative but rather an ongoing journey of continuous improvement. He draws an analogy between physical fitness and personal growth, highlighting that lasting transformation requires consistent effort and habit formation over time, with the example of a person achieving a physical fitness objective by attending the gym regularly for 12 months, versus one intense 48 hour period.

He advocates for consistently engaging in small acts to develop leadership every few weeks, such as dedicating a few minutes daily to read a revised job description, emphasizing the primary responsibility to encourage excellence in the team. Similar to feedback strategies, Tenney advocates for bite-size leadership development training that focuses on a single behavior or skill at once, allowing ample opportunity for application and habit formation before moving on to the next. He stresses the importance of making new behaviors stick, transforming them into permanent routines that lead to lasting improvements in leadership effectiveness.

This continuous improvement approach, paired with consistent input and timely action, fosters a culture of high performance, attracting and retaining top talent while enabling your organization to better influence the people you serve.

Practical Tips

• Implement a "habit stacking" technique by adding a new, small habit immediately before or after an existing one. For example, if you already have a habit of drinking a cup of coffee every morning, stack a new habit of meditating for five minutes right before or after your coffee ritual. This method leverages the strength of your current habits to help establish new ones.
• Implement a "Five-Minute Favor" routine where you offer help to someone without expecting anything in return. Every day, find a quick way to assist a peer, subordinate, or even a stranger. This could be sharing a resource, making an introduction, or offering a piece of advice. This practice not only builds your reputation as a leader but also strengthens your network and interpersonal skills.
• Develop decision-making skills by setting up a 'decision journal' where you record the decisions you make each day, the reasoning behind them, and the outcomes. Over time, review the journal to identify patterns in your decision-making process and areas for improvement, fostering a more strategic leadership mindset.
• Use a daily reflection journal to track leadership behavior progress. At the end of each day, write down instances where you practiced a new leadership behavior and how it affected your interactions. This could be anything from giving constructive feedback to delegating tasks more effectively. Over time, you'll be able to see patterns in your behavior and adjust accordingly.
• Implement a "Five-Minute Action Rule" for tasks that seem daunting or easy to procrastinate on. Whenever you're faced with a task that you're not immediately motivated to do, commit to working on it for just five minutes. Often, starting is the hardest part, and once you've begun, you'll find it easier to keep going. This strategy helps break the inertia of inaction and can lead to a habit of timely responses to tasks.
• Develop a personal branding workshop for employees to help them understand and leverage their unique strengths. Collaborate with a local career coach or use online resources to guide employees through the process of identifying their personal brand and how it aligns with the company's values. This empowers employees to take charge of their career development and aligns their success with the company's growth.
• Develop a feedback loop to understand the impact of your actions on others. After implementing a new service or policy, reach out to those affected to gather their feedback through digital platforms or feedback boxes. Use this information to make iterative improvements. For instance, if you run a café, ask customers to rate their experience with a new menu item and use their suggestions to refine the dish.