3 Ways to Empower Your Employees to
Feel Engaged at Work
If
your employees aren’t happy to be working for you, your customers will pick up
on that in a flash.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V
AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
Sep 2,
2025
I live within five
minutes of no less than three major post offices, and I visit all of them from
time to time depending on whether I plan to park my car, how much time I can
spare, and how horrible my last experience was at each location. I make these pilgrimages
in part because you can no longer trust the few remaining greasy,
graffiti-decorated mailboxes which are randomly located in generally
inaccessible places throughout the city to be secure repositories of any mailed
missive. Forget about snow, rain, heat, or gloom of night—these days you need
to worry far more about stolen mailbox keys, thefts and washing of checks, and
carrier stick-ups.
To be clear, the few
postal stations I still frequent are only the surviving remnants of a larger
universe of possible choices because there are several of these archives of
angst and anger that I have sworn to never enter again. I don’t know what I’ve
ever done to offend these folks, but I know that they’ll be pissed to see me
from the moment I arrive. I guess interrupting whatever it is they’re doing is
just an impolite imposition. In some cases, as soon as they see me, they rush
into the back room. This is, by the way, probably the fastest they will
move for the entire day.
Suffice it to say that
these forlorn places are a bridge too far for me even though I know that
there’s no real threat that the omnipresent desperation, despair, and
depression are contagious. I have decided that it’s just not worth the risk of
subjecting myself and my psyche to the postal perils present in these dark
dungeons where these poor people are condemned to spend their days.
For some reason,
however, my mail man or woman—who does have to contend with the weather, dogs,
crazy teens on scooters, and, of course, the occasional thief trying to steal
money, keys, or the contents of his bag—is still dependably cheerful,
talkative, and even occasionally helpful with misdelivered materials and other
information. These folks still seem to enjoy their work, to go out of their way
to connect with their customers, to be involved and curious about what’s going
on around them, and to make it their business to be the best representatives
possible for the USPS. They know it’s their job to make the best possible first
impression.
As much as that complete
moron, Louis DeJoy, the former U.S. Postmaster General, tried everything in his
power for five years before he was fired to slow or eliminate the mail service,
to remove convenient mailboxes, to discard or decommission critical processing
and sorting equipment, and to treat his workforce as drones and morons, the
day-to-day delivery troops who get us our mail seem to have somehow escaped his
best attempts to make their lives miserable.
When you compare the
onsite experience at the post office to the aptitude, atmosphere, and
attentiveness you find at almost any UPS or FedEx store, it really is a world
of difference. And these guys seem to have also figured out how to make their
places well-lit, clean, and welcoming. But, at the end of each day, what really
determines the customer’s experience is the person behind the counter. All the
scripting and role playing in the world isn’t as important to the end results
as one simple fact: Successful service is more about self-esteem than training.
If your people feel good about themselves, it’s obvious and it’s
contagious.
And there’s a serious
lesson here for every business with customer-facing front line folks. If your
employees aren’t engaged, involved, and “happy” to be working for you, your
customers will pick up on that in a flash. I’m not talking about the crappy employees who shouldn’t be there in the first place.
And I understand that there’s a reason they call it “work” and not “fun” and
that “happy” may be too high a bar. But you still need to figure out
how to make the work being done by everyone in your business—top to
bottom—somehow important, valuable and meaningful to them as well as for you.
Your customers will never be happier than your employees. A critical part of
great leadership is the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want
to do and like it.
There are a couple of
important things to keep in mind as you try to make sure that you’re creating
the most supportive, effective and empowering environment for your employees
that is possible in whatever business you’re in.
·
Sadly, from an early age
at school, we learn to be bored by lazy teachers with low expectations and with
unchallenging materials left over from the last century. This is not a natural
condition and plenty of students survive and thrive by making their own way
through the painful dream-snuffing process we call education. It’s not much
better in many businesses and industries. Being bored is not an inevitable
consequence of whatever job you may have. All work can be creative if it’s done
by a thinking mind who works at it. My mailman makes it a challenge every day
to see how many people on the block he can interact with and he actually keeps
score.
·
On the other hand, if
you start out and settle for the idea that you’re a mindless drone just going
through the motions and repeating a routine without any thought that you’ve
learned from someone else, then I assure you that you’re going to get exactly what
you deserve. My mailman says that – while a meter maid might hate herself for
basically delivering pain every day – he knows that, in addition to the bills
and flyers, he brings a lot of joy and pleasure to many of his customers. His
work is meaningful and has value and that knowledge provides the kind of
satisfaction that leads to exceptional performance. Rain or shine, he doesn’t
quit for the day until every piece of mail he has is delivered and he’s
appropriately proud of that fact.
·
Finally, recognition and
feedback from the firm and from the folks in the field is critical. If your
employees think that no one is watching or cares about their performance,
they’ll have very little interest or incentive to step up. If you tolerate poor
performers; if you keep people around with crappy attitudes who’ve “quit”, but
haven’t left, you drag down and demoralize your best performers; and if you
don’t commit to challenge and help your people grow in whatever role they have
or aspire to, they’ll be leaving for a better opportunity and a better
boss.
The best of the post
offices I visit (and the only one where the staff actually knows who I am) has
had a program for the last year where each member of the counter team offers
everyone a chance to buy a book or sheet of whatever cool new stamps have come
out that week. They even explain what the stamps mean if you ask. This requires
heads-up, face-to-face conversation (imagine that) and even some eye contact
and an occasional smile. It’s part of a competition and contest invented by the
local office manager to see who can sell the most stamps each week. I think the
winner gets to pick what kind of donuts the manager buys on the following
Monday morning for the office. It’s not a huge thing, but it makes a world of
difference.
