The Magical Science of Leader and Employee Engagement – In Just 7 Minutes with Doug Fine

Resources/Links:

• :The ENGAGEMENT MAGIC® Model Demonstration: Signup here: https://www.dougjfine.com/demonstrationsignup

Summary

Doug Fine have been a human resources leader for over 25 years, both as a Naval Officer and in the hospital/healthcare industry. He specializes in leadership training and organizational development emphasizing work culture enhancement and training for high engagement by leaders and employees.

In this episode, Doug shares practical actions that accelerate building a more engaged culture.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:37 – Doug’s ideal client: small to medium business with ten leaders and up to 100 employees.
• 01:59 – Problem he helps solve: lack of engagement
• 02:35 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Doug: They’re not going above and beyond the call of duty, high turnover, pour retention, discipline problems, absenteeism, injuries
• 03:23 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: It’s a random act of engagement
• 06:47 – Doug’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): visit dougjfine.com
• 05:44 – Doug’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): The free stuff on my website I just put together an info graph that identifies the things that disengaged people do and the things that engage people to do. And it’s really easy. It’s not even a read, it’s visual. People could take that and hang it up and compare themselves to those models.
• 06:39 – Q: “How important is it for leaders like executive teams and C-suite teams to understand engagement? A: If they understand what it is and they start practicing these competencies that make up the word MAGIC. So, leadership is key. I’m not going to do it for companies that are not willing to recognize that it’s important for leaders to be fully engaged. And if a leader is engaged, that’s more likely that their staff will be engaged.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Leaders have to drag performance out of people. But I also think that it's a leadership issue too. That they don't understand engagement and the factors that bring about full engagement. So, there is a lot of symptoms of it, high turnover,… Share on X

Info about our correspondent host:Travis has a background in sales, marketing, and strategy, and left the corporate world several years ago to start his own agency. As a copywriter by trade, his biggest skill is putting the right words, in front of the right people, at the right time. Travis has developed go-to-market strategies for grassroots apps to Fortune 500 and helped optimize up to $50k per day in Facebook Ad spend for one of the biggest startups in Asia.

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Travis Bennett: [00:00:09] Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Travis Bennett and I’m rocking it to you here out of Yangon, Myanmar, proving that you really can be anywhere in the world and build your business into a success. I’m joined today by Doug J. Fine. Doug, a very very warm welcome.

Doug Fine: [00:00:25] Thank you, Travis. I’m really glad to be here and getting to know you. Thank you.

Travis Bennett: [00:00:29] Likewise, likewise. Where are you coming to us from today?

Doug Fine: [00:00:32] I am speaking from Augusta, Georgia. In the deep south of the United States of America.

Travis Bennett: [00:00:38] Wow, that must be a beautiful part of the country.

Doug Fine: [00:00:41] It is. And it’s known for the Masters Tournament in golf. So, if anybody is a golfer that’s where we’re all at. You know, it’s all about golf.

Travis Bennett: [00:00:51] Right. Okay. So, for those of you who don’t know Doug, I’m just going to introduce him really quickly. He’s a former US Naval Officer and followed that with a long career in health care with leadership positions in OD, Training, Large Scale Change, and HR. And he specializes now in engagement training for SMBs. So, Doug, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show today. The title of that episode is going to be “The Magical Science of Leader and Employee Engagement”. And Doug, you’re going to explain all of it to us in just seven minutes. So…

Doug Fine: [00:01:19] That’s all I have, huh.

Travis Bennett: [00:01:20] That’s, that’s all you have. That’s all we’re going to get.

Doug Fine: [00:01:23] I’ll make it work.

Travis Bennett: [00:01:24] Perfect. So, I’m going to start the timer and we’re going to be ready to rock if I can figure out the starting button. There we go. So, question number, one seven minutes left. Who is your ideal client?

Doug Fine: [00:01:37] My ideal client is a small business, small to medium business with ten leaders and up to 100 employees. But I also like doing internal departments like H.R. and other departments within a company too that want to ramp up their engagement.

Travis Bennett: [00:01:52] Okay. Okay. And what is the problem that you’re solving, could you explain it a little bit more. We’ve got six minutes 33 seconds.

Doug Fine: [00:01:59] The problem is lack of engagement and engagement is an emotional connection to the work. You know, where people give their hearts, their spirits, their minds, and their hands to accomplishing things in the business. And you know, it’s what’s called a world-famous right now that people are not engaged in their jobs.

Travis Bennett: [00:02:18] Yeah, that’s definitely a problem. Yeah.

Doug Fine: [00:02:20] And companies need this. So, I’m here to deliver some training that will really get a kick-started.

Travis Bennett: [00:02:26] Okay. Okay, great. So then, I guess, what are the typical symptoms people are experiencing when they when they’re not engaged. And we’ve got five minutes fifty-six on the clock.

Doug Fine:[00:02:35] Well I think that they’re not going above and beyond the call of duty. They’re actually just marching in place almost. And it seems like leaders have to drag performance out of people. But I also think that it’s a leadership issue too. That they don’t understand engagement and the factors that bring about full engagement. So, there is a lot of symptoms of it, high turnover, pour retention, discipline problems, absenteeism, workers comp injuries, same things like that. But engagement is something that every company needs.

Travis Bennett: [00:03:10] Definitely. Definitely. So, when a company tries to do this on their own and they’re trying to solve this engagement problem in their organization, what are the common mistakes that they usually make? We’ve got just over five minutes on the clock.

Doug Fine: [00:03:23] Okay. I think it’s a random act of engagement. So, there are people in companies that think well this is engagement, this is engagement. So, let’s throw a hot dog party. Let’s throw a pizza party. Let’s give them all the coffee mugs. Let’s, god only know, what’s the latest fad. So, people don’t understand what engagement is, what makes up for engagement and that’s the problem. And the training I do is research-based. When I say it’s a magical science, the word magic is actually made up of letters that make up for engagements. So really quickly, MAGIC stands for Meaning, Autonomy, Growth, Impact, and Connection. If those things are humming on all cylinders, you’re going to have an engaged person and then engage the organization. So, the mistakes people make are they don’t understand engagement, they don’t know what it is, they don’t know what makes it, and that’s what I do. I bring training to companies that put everybody on the same page about it.

Travis Bennett: [00:04:23] Okay. Okay. So, as part of this training that you do, do you have something that’s valuable for the listeners today that maybe they can implement that might help them solve this problem in their business. So just kind of a short free action that we can give. Three minutes 36 seconds left.

Doug Fine: [00:04:41] Okay. On my website dougjfine.com, there is a link for free stuff.

Travis Bennett: [00:04:47] Ooh, wow.

Doug Fine: [00:04:49] The very first free thing there is a self-assessment. An online assessment that in about 10 minutes people would be able to see where their personal engagement is and see where they fall on all those five letters. So, it’s really cool. That could start out a company or a department in a company to see where their engagement is. And that’s when people need to give me a call because I can help them from there.

Travis Bennett: [00:05:14] Yup. So, they get the thermometer check and then they call you to say how do we fix this specific problem.

Doug Fine: [00:05:19] Absolutely.

Travis Bennett: [00:05:20] Wow. Okay. So then in addition to that I guess, the next question number six, we got two minutes forty-nine on the clock. So, we’re going really great for a time. Do you have a valuable free resource that maybe we can help push people to learn or to build something before they need to pick up the phone and call you? And actually give some you know the readers, not the readers, the listener’s something valuable from listening in today.

Doug Fine: [00:05:44] Sure. I think it’s on the same page. The free stuff on my website I just put together an info graph that identifies the things that disengaged people do and the things that engage people do. And it’s really easy. It’s not even a read, it’s visual. People could take that and hang it up and compare themselves to those models. And they can compare other people like compare their boss. Is their boss engaged or disengaged or they engaged or disengaged? So, it’s a really helpful tool.

Travis Bennett: [00:06:15] Definitely. Okay. So, they can check that out on dougjfine.com and then there’s a link to the free stuff. Perfect.

Doug Fine: [00:06:21] Yes.

Travis Bennett: [00:06:21] So, wow. This has been, it’s been a fantastic call. So, we’ve got one-minute forty-five left on the clock. So, we’ve got time to really go in-depth here. And then the last question that I have to you today is what’s the one question I should have asked you but I didn’t get to? I didn’t get you in something that could give great value to the audiences listening today.

Doug Fine: [00:06:39] Well I would say, thank you for this opportunity. I would say that how important is it for leaders like executive teams and C-suit teams, how important is it for them to understand engagement. And I would say this, when I’m going to go into organizations and train, I’m not going to just train team members and employees at a lower level and even second-tier leaders. I need those executive teams in those training sessions so they understand and they’re all on the same page. So I don’t want any client, I don’t want a client that’s going to say, “Well, that’s for other people, we’re so busy that we can’t really afford the time to spend a day with you”, a day and a half with you if you’re a leader. So, it is very important that leaders understand engagements. So, they would bring me in and it would be a very fast culture shift. If they understand what it is and they start practicing these competencies that make up the word MAGIC. So, leadership is key. I’m not going to do it for companies that are not willing to recognize that it’s important for leaders to be fully engaged. And if a leader is engaged, that’s more likely that their staff will be engaged.

Travis Bennett: [00:07:58] Okay. Perfect. Doug, thank you so much for your time. It’s great listening to today and I’ll share the links to your landing page so that we can direct the people up there and they can have a look at all the free stuff too.

Doug Fine: [00:08:09] Perfectly. It was enjoyable Travis. Thanks for your time.

Travis Bennett: [00:08:12] Thank you, Doug.

Tom Poland: Thanks for checking out our marketing the invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.