Employee Engagement and the Art of Listening

Darren Talbot Darren.Talbot@aspen-waite.co.uk

The key assets of any company are its people, particularly the client facing ones. It is their ideas that lead to innovation which will, in turn, enhance and grow your business. Aspen Waite is a firm of advisors which prides itself on disrupting the accountancy market through innovation and to do this it is their inspirational leader Paul Waite, his staff and the clients that are at the heart of everything they do.

People make your business work and keeping them engaged has become a key priority for organisations around the world. Many organisations have developed annual surveys and appraisals to gauge and measure engagement.

In recent months, within the Aspen Waite in Wales team we have spent a considerable amount of time working with Rob Lester of Moral Training and Development, creating a new engagement program for staff called “Real Conversations.”

The driver for this is that, as an employer, we do not spend enough time investing in our key asset, our staff. The traditional method of measuring performance of employees through annual appraisals is too rigid and does not really give the employees a platform to engage.

Recently, I have read a fascinating book called “You’re Not Listening” by Kate Murphy and would recommend anyone in life or business reads it, it’s a game changer. Below is an extract of the introduction and I hope this inspires you to order your copy.

When was the last time you listened to someone?Really listened, without thinking about what you wanted to say next, glancing down at your phone, or jumping in to offer your opinion? And when was the last time someone really listened to you? Was so attentive to what you were saying and whose response was so spot- on that you felt truly understood?

In modern life, we are encouraged to listen to our hearts, listen to our inner voices, and listen to our guts, but rarely are we encouraged to listen carefully and with intent to other people. Instead, we are engaged in a dialogue of the deaf, often talking over one another at cocktail parties, work meetings, and even family dinners; groomed as we are to lead the conversation rather than follow it. Online and in person, it’s all about defining yourself, shaping the narrative, and staying on message. Value is placed on what you project, not what you absorb.

It was reading this book that inspired me further to take the Real Conversations process developed with Rob Lester to full implementation across the division.

Over many years of working in the corporate world, both Rob and I were tasked to deliver KPIs, not always fully understanding the reason behind that target or the effect we were having on delivering that target.

Poorly engaged or brainwashed into believing we were just doing the right thing for customers, when maybe we were doing the right thing for shareholders or investors. There must be a balance of course, however, our beliefs are firmly placed in empowering our people to be the best they can be through supporting, coaching, developing, and communicating with them, as well as listening to their input and acknowledging their skills.

Working with the team in Wales has been a very interesting project as we have been dealing with a team going through a fast development trajectory with new members and a mix of youth and experience. Turning what can be seen as a daunting prospect “The Appraisal” into a “Real Conversation” takes subtlety and skill, as well as large elements of trust.

Beginning with some very simple discovery conversations allowed us to form pictures of where the team was in terms of their journey and how best to support them with a framework moving forward.

Aspen Waite is a progressive business and has some amazing ideas and projects. Taking this into account, we have worked on a “freedom within a framework” culture during this process. Meaning we set up a framework but gave everyone freedom within that to explore possibilities, opening the team’s eyes to possibilities instead of closing them to tasks.

At every stage, we have reviewed the conversations had and what was learned by ourselves and the way we had conducted conversations each day. The team now have a Personal Development Plan (PDP) they have designed in consultation with their line manager which means they buy into the ownership of the plan, as they manage their own destiny. Allowing them space to have a personal objective in their PDP shows how the business is understanding the different times we all live in and have lived in through the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows them to concentrate on something that they enjoy outside of work and maybe bring that skill to the workplace for others to share and experience.

To underline all of this and to future proof the business in Wales, we have invested in a development program for the team to allow them to develop their skillsets as future leaders and custodians of the Aspen Waite Way for generations to come. As we speak, the team are two workshops into a six workshop program and they are relishing the chance to expand their skills and build a stronger team for the future. There feels like a tangible shift in their purpose, as well as their effectiveness as a team, and this is what pleases us the most.

Value is placed on what you project, not what you absorb...