Leadership Expert and author of Lead with Love, Gerry Czarnecki, applies a study by researchers at Sirota Survey Intelligence to his ideas of company morale. The study claims that firms with strong employee morale outperform similar companies with medium to low morale.
The report, pulled an article from Business Week Online entitled, The Art of Motivation: What you can learn from a company that treats workers like owners. Inside the surprising performance culture of steelmaker Nucor, describes the high level of commitment exhibited by the steelmakers’ workers to get a troubled plant up and running, claiming that the company had “the most dynamic and engaged workforces around.”
The article goes on to say, “At Nucor the core of motivation is about a steadfast focus on its people. That has boded well in the form of a loyal and productive workforce and increasing profitability.” Perhaps most compelling in the article is Nucor's 387% return to shareholders over the past five years handily beats almost all other companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, including New Economy icons Amazon.com, Starbucks, and eBay. The company also has become more profitable as it has grown. For example, margins which were 7% in 2000, reached 10%last year.
The same can be applied to small business. Though, Mr. Czarnecki asserts that small business is not a Nucor with the kinds of revenue they have, they can still create a culture of engagement and ownership also by just engaging their associates in the process. Gerry says, “The key here is getting your associates to buy in to the fact that the company exists only because they are there producing quality products and services.”
In his experience as President and CEO of O2 Media, Inc., Gerry comments, “Every time we have a strategic shift, we have used the brainstorming session process to get our key associates engaged in our thought processes. It is amazing how many great ideas we get, but more importantly, our associates then own the changes. It takes time, but it is an investment that pays phenomenal dividends.”
For Gerry, it all boils down to allowing the employee to share in the company’s success and showing how each individual contributes to the overall health and success of the organization.
Read more about this case study and the Art of Motivation:
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982075.htm
