Cambridge Dictionaries Online defines emotional capital as, “The feelings and beliefs that help an organization’s employees to form successful relationships with each other, which is good for the organization.”
My definition goes a little bit beyond interpersonal relationships, and includes the relationship between an employee, their employer, and their job. I define emotional capital as an intangible asset that, when triggered, can cause a person to take personal responsibility for the results of their actions.
It is the glue that holds together, the relationship between a goal and our commitment to its success. The goal initially does not have to be ours, but the moment we make the investment, it becomes ours, and our commitment to see it succeed becomes our reality.
To put it another way, investing emotional capital can be likened to the everyday concept of “having skin in the game.” When we have skin in the game, we play differently. We don’t give up easily. We devise new and ingenious ways to find success. All these are by products of an investment of emotional capital.
When we have skin in the game, we play differently. We don’t give up easily. We devise new and ingenious ways to find success.
When we invest emotional capital in a thing or another person, we are more likely than not to support that thing or person with a greater measure of enthusiasm than if we had not invested at all. In the same way, whether at work or in our personal lives, the more emotional capital we invest in a goal or vision, the more committed we become to its success.
So how does the savvy leader, manger, supervisor or coach get an employee to make this type of investment in the work place? How do we get employees to “have skin in the game” and to take responsibility for the success of yours or the company’s goals?
Below are a few tips to get you started on the way to getting your employees to invest emotional capital:
Communicate well, and often
In real estate, you always hear, “location, location, location.” It’s all about the location. Well, when it comes to employee engagement, I say, it’s all about the communication. When people know why they are being asked to do something, and how their performance affects the bigger picture, you are more likely to elicit a higher level of performance from them than if they cannot relate their importance to the success of the whole.
Be strategic, purposeful, intentional, and focused (SPIf)
I call it “Managing your SPIF”. Be strategic, purposeful, intentional, and focused about knowing your employees. When you know your employees, it is easier to delegate those tasks that you know they “prefer” doing, and subsequently will produce better results, versus delegating tasks they hate and may produce subpar results. Learn your employees and their personalities.
Go beyond the DiSC personality profiles and assessments, and actually get to know your employees. Ask them questions about themselves. They love it. Research suggests that on average, people spend 60% of conversations talking about themselves, and that this figure jumps to 80% when communicating via social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The bottom line is this, if a direct report has worked for you for two months and you do not know how long it takes them to get to work, then you’re not “managing your SIP” well and you are doing yourself a disservice.
Curb the urge to immediately give the answers they ask for
Most people are promoted to leadership positions because of their technical ability and knowledge, not because of their leadership skills or ability. As a result, the tendency is to rush to supply answers when their direct reports come to them. Unfortunately, even though it makes the leader feel “good, and needed,” this approach is the perfect recipe for creating a not-engaged, non-initiative taking, dependent employee. It creates non-thinkers and offers no incentive for personal responsibility.
A more productive and helpful approach is to ask open ended questions like, “How do you propose we do that?” or, “walk me through your approach?” or, “tell me what you’ve already tried so far?” This approach can be beneficial in several ways. First, it gets the employee more engaged and in a problem-solving mode. Second, it is an excellent opportunity to build relational collateral. Third, it allows the employee to “discover” the answer themselves. When they do, they become responsible for the results. Ultimately, personal responsibility is a great motivator.