Creating Mystery For Your Employees

A recent report from The Conference Board noted that “Americans of all ages and income brackets continue to grow increasingly unhappy at work.” The survey showed that only 45 percent of employees are satisfied with their jobs.

Think about that for a minute. Only 45 percent of the people working for you like their job. Ouch!

Gallup Research also indicates that employees are not only dissatisfied with their work, they also are not engaged. Gallup reported that only 26% of employees are actively engaged with their job. Again, that means that only one out of every four of your employees is dialed into what you’re trying to accomplish.

So how do you improve those numbers where you work? Instead of looking at our employees and pointing fingers (“Why don’t you guys love it here?”) we should engage our employees ourselves.

One of the best ways I’ve found to do that is to create mystery for your employees. What do I mean by that? Provide some elements of surprise at the office. Keep them guessing so they never know what you’re going to do next.

Here’s an example. Each year I do a beginning of the year motivational exercise for my employees. I devise a theme, write them a letter encouraging and challenging them, and get them focused. Instead of just coming in and giving the theme I leave surprise clues for them.

I’ve done things like:

• Put a giant box on their desk (they eventually learned the theme was “think huge”)
• E-mailed them motivational clips (my favorite was this Derek Redmond clip) (they eventually learned the theme was to “never give up”)
• Placed old running shoes in their offices (they eventually learned the theme was to “crawl, walk, run.”)

This year I’ve given them six clues:

• Sunglasses
• Quotes “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” (Walter Winchell); “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.” (Henry Drummond)
• A picture from the movie Twilight
• A toy watch
• A running video clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaqmqdbM1g)
• A doll-sized book

We’ll see if they get it. Each clue represents one word. Do you want to play along? Feel free to post your answers in a comment below or e-mail me what you think each word means. I can’t give you a prize (although everyone who works for me that gets all six words exactly right does get a ½ day off).

Creating mystery and giving clues engages your employees. It demonstrates you care about them and want them engaged in their jobs. How can we expect our employees to be engaged with us if we’re not engaged with them?

If your employees are unmotivated and disinterested maybe you should start engaging them by creating mystery in the workplace.

Comments

[Matt Risenhoover]

Wish I was an employee that had the opportunity to think huge....

[Matt Risenhoover]

But I'm embarrassed for any body that get the passion from that movie reference, Twilight?....:)

[Mark]

Matt: Congrats on figuring out the Think Huge clues so quickly. If you still worked for me you would have easily won a 1/2 day off! And you obviously are still thinking huge!