Employee Confidence

Employee Confidence, The New Rules of Engagement, by Karen J. Hewitt, Panoma Press 2018

What could be a better indicator of employee engagement, effective leadership and dare we say it?  a healthy business, than strong employee confidence?  You know it when you have it, but when it's gone, there's pain.  Corporate pain.

Change expert and author Karen J. Hewitt explains exactly what employee confidence is, how important it is as a foundation element, how to lose it and how to build it back.  This is a clear, quick read, but not an easy process.  "Employee confidence is an approach to and evidence of culture change, giving you human capital that delivers value far beyond your expectations," says Hewitt.

The author tells us to look at these four types of confidence that every employee must have:

1.  Internal - Self-understanding, self-acceptance, self-challenge and self-cheer

2.  Deep Purpose - Mindset and positive internal conversations

3.  External  How to use the right words, voice and body language

4.  Strategic - The ability to handle any situation with skill and dexterity.  

Tools covered in Employee Confidence include the Employee Confidence Survey, a good starting point to measure beyond employee engagement the mindset and behavior characteristics companies will need to build on.   Seven questions that will uncover surprises provide the very difficult starting point:

1.  How clear are you on your own personal values?

2.  How closely do your personal values align with company values?

3.  How would you describe the mindset expected of you at work?

4.  How does this compare to your actual mindset at work?

5.  How clear are you on the change leadership behaviors you are expected to adopt?

6.  How comfortable are you with the change leadership behaviors you are expected to adopt?

7.  What are the barriers to adopting the required change leadership behaviors?

Throughout this book the author uses many checklists and questionnaires to help leaders get closer to the particular objective.  Although Employee Confidence is only 200 pages, it's a think book, a valuable tool for any organization questioning employee motivation and confidence.