A Powerful Source of Employee Inspiration

By admin on July 24th, 2011

An important part of a leaders job is to provide and environment that helps to inspire and motivate the people around them. Inspired, motivated and passionate employees lead to improved results and higher levels of innovation.

This is why the June 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review article “How Customers Can Rally Your Troops” caught my attention. The article describes how…

”a growing body of research shows that end users—customers, clients, patients, and others who benefit from a company’s products and services—are surprisingly effective in motivating people to work harder, smarter, and more productively.”

It seems that when employees understand and experience the impact that the company products and services on customers it serves to inspire and motivate. It seems that the reason feedback from customers is so effective in motivating is because employees see customer feedback as more credible and instils a sense of meaning.

Customer Feedback is Seen as More Credible

Customer feedback is seen, by employees as more credible than feedback from company managers.

“Organizational psychologist David Hofmann and I have found that employees generally see end users as more credible than leaders as sources of inspiration. When leaders attempt to deliver inspiring messages, many employees react with skepticism, questioning whether leaders are just trying to get them to work harder.”

Customer Feedback Instils a Powerful Sense of Meaning

The most powerful source of motivation occurs when we are doing work that gives meaning and a sense of purpose. One powerful source of meaning comes from how we are contributing to improving the lives of others.

“In national surveys over the past three decades, the vast majority of Americans have identified meaningful work as the single most important feature that they seek in a job. And numerous researchers have found that people are concerned not only about themselves but also about doing work that benefits others and contributes to society.”

This insight also provides further support for the John Kay’s concept of obliquity and it’s importance when setting company vision and strategy.

How Companies Are Using Customer Feedback

The article provide the following interesting examples of how companies use customer feedback to motivate and and inspire their employees:

“Facebook flies in users from around the country to meet with engineers and share how the site has reconnected them to family and friends”
“At a Merrill Lynch branch, weekly team meetings begin with stories about how the team has made a difference in customers’ lives.”
“At Wells Fargo, for instance, managers show bankers videos of people describing how low-interest loans rescued them from severe debt—a vivid reminder to the bankers that they are striving to serve their customers, not their managers.”
“At Medtronic’s annual holiday party, for instance, patients are invited to share their stories about how the company’s medical technologies helped them. The stories humanize the work for the engineers and technicians behind the scenes.”

This insight also provides further support for the John Kay concept of obliquity and it’s importance when setting company vision and strategy.

What are you doing to leverage customer feedback to motivate and inspire employees?
What can you do to find and share inspiring customer satisfaction stories within your company?