Harnessing the sticky beak’s enthusiasm

I was contacted recently by a woman who questions whether someone can be “too engaged” with an employer.

I went back to her to clarify what “too engaged” looks like. She described it as “a person who stuck their nose into everything and generally is a busy body”.
I’ve put my answer in this blog because I think it is an interesting question.

To me it is about “right person, right role” and having a clearly defined role. Let’s assume that this person knows what they are there to do in a day (has a clearly defined job description, KPIs and knows when they have “won” at their job) but still cannot help “contributing” wherever possible to anyone who will listen – and they have an opinion about everything. This is a person who needs to be heard.
One thing we have done at RedBalloon is in the first few days after joining the business, each person completes an online survey conducted by Gallup organisation  called Strengths Finder.

Quite frankly, we find what people are really innately good at.

For instance, if you find that you have someone in a highly analytical role and yet one of their top strengths is WOO (winning others over) then they are likely to be very loud and vocal and wanting to tell everyone what they have just learnt (they are likely to even blog it – I’m high on WOO, hence the blogs and tweets). 
We checked in our organisation for who is high in the strength of “command” – these people make great fire wardens – and found you can give additional tasks to people to support the use of their strengths.
I personally don’t think that someone can be “too” engaged – I just think that the organisation needs to manage, harness and develop that person’s passion for the greatest return to the business and for the individual. A straight conversation with that individual needs to take place on how to best contribute, and the impact of the current situation.
If I think back to my corporate career, I was probably a right royal pain in the neck for my managers – wanting to change the world every second of the day. (It’s why I needed to run my own show.)

Two other of my strengths are positivity and self assurance – and I’m not that strong on detail or process. I was not “heard” when I worked in big business; I had to take my voice elsewhere.

Naomi is the 2008 National Telstra Women’s Business Award winner for Innovation. Naomi was also a finalist for the Australian HR Awards and a finalist for the BRW Most Admired Business Owner Award in 2008. Also in 2008 RedBalloon achieved a 97% Hewitt employee engagement score. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a professional speaker inspiring middle to high-level leaders on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and has written a book sharing the lessons from her first five years.

To read more Naomi Simson blogs, click here .