It’s Not (Just) About the Soup
Seidman
In these troubled times, I’m inspired by leaders who are inspiring employees — and their companies — to reach new levels of success. That’s why I was struck by the words of Douglas Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup Co., in a recent Forbes story and interview.
Conant has a real passion for engaging his employees, as he says:
To win in the marketplace, we believe you must first win in the workplace. I’m obsessed with keeping employee engagement front and center and keeping up energy around it.
These are not just empty words. When Gallup, the research firm, studied the engagement levels of Campbell’s managers in 2002, 62 percent said they were not actively engaged in their jobs and another 12 percent said they were actively disengaged. Those numbers, Conant says, were the worst for any Fortune 500 firm ever polled. Today, 68 percent of all Campbell employees say they are actively engaged.
That dramatic turnaround has also coincided with a rise in earnings and company performance.
Conant has hit upon something that is essential for any organization, in good and bad times: People that are actively engaged help move the organization forward. And I believe that inspiration and values are the most important drivers of engagement.
In a 21st-century world that is more connected and transparent, businesses need new strategies to get the right behavior out of workers. In the past, business used carrots (motivation) and sticks (coercion) to get performance out of people. Now, we need leaders who can inspire performance in people. More and more people are recognizing the value we can create when we move from being command-and-control disciplinarians to becoming inspirational leaders.
Conant has clearly understood this. When he arrived at the company, Conant said, he set out to “make it clear I understood that Campbell as an organization needed to demonstrate its commitment to its people before they could be expected to demonstrate their own extraordinary commitment to it and its success.” This understanding led to what is now called “The Campbell Promise”: Campbell valuing people; people valuing Campbell.
How did he deliver on that promise? He had to make some tough decisions. Conant replaced 300 of the company’s 350 leaders within the first three years. Half of the new leaders were promoted from within the company. That sent a strong message about change.
Campbell’s also celebrates its successes. Leaders are measured on their ability to inspire trust in those around them. Conant does lots of listening, too, meeting regularly with rank-and-file workers to hear what they have to say.
As a result, Conant says, “We’re performing at a higher level, we’ve become more innovative and we’ve become more self-governing.”
Of course, every leader wants engagement. We always have. But how do you get more engagement? We need to move beyond conventional drivers — carrots and sticks — and seek to develop deeper connections to our people that will truly engage them.
I believe that we are in an era of inspiration, where great results will be driven by employees who believe not just in a company’s potential for success but also in the company’s fundamental mission. They work not just for pay but because they also want to achieve something they find inspiring. It’s the job of leaders at all levels of the organization to inspire those around them. That’s what drives engagement, not just for today, but in a sustainable way.
Last 5 posts by Dov Seidman
• The Economy: Don't Hit the Reset Button - May 19th, 2010
• Is There 'Honest Tea' on Wall Street? - May 14th, 2010
• Inspirational Shame in the Era of Behavior - April 14th, 2010
• Philosophy Is Back in Business - January 13th, 2010
• How to Behave Our Way Out of Crisis - December 9th, 2009
July 31st, 2009 at 3:30 am
The basic understanding of employee engagement is as old as the hills. Sure it is been refined over time, but companies who have engaged staff also have great leaders and managers, they have the right people in the right places, and they help liberate (or change) the 17% or so who are actively-disengaged (and bring the morale of the rest of the team down).
The importance of the line-manager/employee relationship should never be over looked however, as this arguably is the most critical relationship in create employee engagement. It does however require managers to become leaders (and mentors) - and help employees feel more connected and engaged with the company.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I agree. Conant’s approach is in line with Towers Perrin’s as outlined in Closing the Engagement Gap as well as the results we’ve seen with our own customers — frequent, timely, personal and (importantly) accountable recognition and appreciation of employee efforts leads to improved market and financial performance.