New Six Disciplines Study Shows Senior Management Disconnected from Staff on Factors Driving Organization Performance and Employee Engagement

FINDLAY, Ohio, Aug. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent study from Six Disciplines found management is disconnected from the rest of the organization on what drives organizational performance and employee engagement. Findings from the research study, What Employees Say Drives Engagement and Performance, concluded that broad-based management systems and the development of a purpose-driven culture across the entire organization are critical to driving growth and profits.

The study indicates that staff at every level of the organization have different needs, are driven by vastly different factors, and have unique understanding and knowledge of what is required to serve the organization's strategy, which is counter to the instincts and perspectives of those in top leadership. Senior leadership's views are crucial, but are not exhaustive; because their fundamental role is focused on broader issues and therefore do not have the valuable perspectives that collectively all of the other people in the organization have, which are vital to maximizing performance.

The study presents seven findings to help CEOs and top leaders better understand best practices and consistent management processes needed to be successful.  Results include:

Being purpose-driven is the #1 influencer driving organizational performance. Over 75 percent of employees value an organization's commitment and clear understanding of strategy and its ability to be open and honest. 

For front-line workers, soft skills (attitudes and inner aspects of relationships) drive employee engagement, and hard skills (identifiable systems and processes) drive performance.  Front-line leaders need to employ a breadth of skills that help them deal with the people side of the business and management systems must equip them with strategy, purpose, priorities, communications and training to be effective. 

Senior leadership underestimates the need for management practices across the organization.   Having a consistent management approach is more valued at lower levels than at the top - 88 % of front-line leaders feel having a broad-based management process is critical whereas only 74% of senior leaders thought it necessary.

Getting strategy right and executing on that strategy are the toughest areas for the CEO to implement.  Strategy is led by a few people but needs to be understood by all. Strategic vision, purpose and clarity (82%) was rated the toughest area to perform well and execution management (85%) the third most difficult as it requires relentless, on-the-ground action that affects every person, every minute of every day.

Every level of leadership has very different ideas on what drives performance.  Management systems need to provide a broad framework of tools and best practices to cope with a wide variety of changing needs. The system can't be rigid; it must promote agility, collaboration and communication to address this wide-ranging set of requirements across an organization.

Employees want their work to matter. The top drivers for employee engagement include (83%) the organization cares about me, (82%) openness and honesty, (81%) I care about the organization, and (79%) values, all which are directly related to the top employee performance driver of being purpose-driven.

On average, employee engagement drops 5-6% for each succeeding management level in the organization.  Because organizations are not flat, there are many more people in an organization who are less engaged than those at the top level and what engages one level of workers is not what engages the next. Consequently, senior leaders are likely to misjudge how the staff sees and reacts to the same information leaders receive.

"This research study is a wake-up call to senior leadership on the importance of not only setting purpose-driven strategy, defining goals and communication processes but also equipping leaders on soft skills so that their actions convey caring, openness and honesty," said Gary Harpst, Six Discipline's CEO.  "For organizations to realize their greatest potential, our research suggests the need for a broad-based management approach that elicits information and leverages the skills and capabilities of everyone in the organization. Only then can organizations optimize performance for maximum business outcomes."

Click here to download the full report.

Methodology
The study, underwritten by Six Disciplines, was carried out by Elite Research.  It involved more than 600 respondents, from companies ranging from 100 to 2,500 employees, employed in four leadership roles with different educational levels and various functional responsibilities.

About Six Disciplines

Six Disciplines is the provider of a new type of business management system that equips leaders to engage people in shared purpose to improve performance and drive growth. Six Disciplines helps CEOs, HR and other business leaders create and align business strategy with people and execution. Its system uniquely combines a proven excellence methodology, software, coaching, and leadership development to automate, streamline and continuously align business strategy with a work management system that maximizes the potential of its workforce around shared purpose. Over 1,500 leaders managing more than 10,000 people rely on Six Disciplines to help them unlock their potential and sustain their strategy.  In 2018, Six Disciplines doubled the size of its coaching network, providing on-site coaching to cities across the entire U.S.  Headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, Six Disciplines is a privately owned company. For more information, visit us at https://www.sixdisciplines.com/, on twitter @SixDisciplines or LinkedIn.          

Media contacts:

Laura MacSweeney
Red Javelin Communications
339 -221-0614
[email protected]

SOURCE Six Disciplines

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