Contribution measures whether the employees feel they are useful, accomplish something, deliver good work, and contribute to the mission and vision of the company.
The typical root causes
Below are the root causes that explain the lower score in the vast majority of cases.
Unclear objectives
Employees do not know when they are successful, as there are no concrete KPIs and/or other measurable goals.Low utilization of talents
Employees are forced to spend time on things that are not within their talents or strengths.Struggling to prioritize
Employees need help prioritizing what is most important.Missing feedback
Employees lack feedback from their leader or from each other.Lack of involvement
Employees do not feel involved in decisions about their tasks and processes.
Ideas for improving
Note: The root cause is what guides a good action that will improve the status quo from a bad action that's targeting something that might already be working. It's only possible to provide good ideas in the context of a root cause.
If uniform tasks are the root cause:
Ask yourself: Do I give the employees sufficient responsibility and freedom to do things in their way?
Consider if you are showing them trust to try doing things in different ways to challenge themselves, letting them learn from their mistakes and successes from it.
Ask yourself: Do I understand, recognize, and act on the employees’ development wishes?
Make sure to schedule regular (eg. quarterly) development- and feedback 1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and set goals as to what they should deliver. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal skills, and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in the Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you should develop a clear plan for the next three months and determine the necessary actions and responsible parties for achieving success.
Ask yourself: Could tasks be allocated differently according to the strengths and talents of the team members?
It could be an idea to look into the task allocation processes of the team. To do this the best way, be aware of the employees’ talents and strengths by using the well-being conversation cards for the drivers Contribution and Mindful on your 1:1’s. Here, it would be a great advantage to actively work with the Zoios Personality Archetypes framework to ensure, that both you and the employees know which tasks are a better fit than others.
If a missing overview of progress is the root cause
Ask yourself: Do I as a leader provide the needed feedback?
Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they are aware of their progress. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or in the development and feedback 1:1’s.
The short-term low-hanging fruit: Book a 30-minute meeting with each of your employees to tell them (and be very specific!) how they have improved and developed during the past six months. Make it very clear to them where they were six months ago and where they are now in comparison.
Ask yourself: Does our culture encourage and value feedback?
Long-term it could also be of great value to make sure that your culture prioritizes feedback and recognition so the employees know - and feel - when they are progressing. Communicate to the team that feedback is a gift and ask them how they want to work with feedback moving forward so they are encouraged to give it to each other instead of leaving it to you.
Ask yourself: Do the employees have sufficient, measurable goals? And do we check in on these regularly?
Make sure to schedule regular (eg. quarterly) development and feedback 1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and set goals as to what they should deliver. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal- , and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in our Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you build a clear plan for the next three months and what actions need to be taken by whom to succeed with the plan. You then evaluate what has happened since the last development talk and enhance progress and learnings.
If missing knowledge about development possibilities is the root cause
Ask yourself: Did I make sure to prioritize making individual development plans for the employees?
If you have overall team goals, that is great. But to make sure your employees develop in the right direction - and that they feel like their development is important to you as a company - it is important to take the time to make individual development plans. The development and feedback conversation is also a nice way of aligning expectations about the future.
Ask yourself: Are our development plans tangible? And do we remember to check in on them regularly?
We recommend scheduling regular (quarterly) development and feedback 1:1’s with the employees. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal skills, and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in our Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you build a clear plan for the next three months and what actions need to be taken by whom to succeed with the plan.
If lack of professional sparring is the root cause
Ask yourself: Do I provide them with sufficient feedback?
Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they know it has value. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or the development and feedback talk or in the monthly well-being conversations, where you can focus on the well-being conversation cards for Contribution, Support, and Recognition.
Ask yourself: How well do we do at knowledge sharing?
Perhaps some of the employees possess skills and knowledge that some of the others could learn a lot from. Set up a workshop, a mentorship program or a structure to make sure this knowledge sharing is facilitated.
Ask yourself: Do we need someone externally to give feedback or educate the employees within a certain expertise?
You can ask the employees for specific wishes for learning within an area or from a certain person with the expertise. Make sure to be transparent about not being able to grant all wishes as well.
If it is not possible due to budgets/resources, brainstorm with the employees or other leaders in your organization in which way you or the other employees can provide the needed professional sparring.
If missing possibilities for optimization is the root cause
Ask yourself: Do I create a safe space for making mistakes?
To develop and think out of the box requires that you sometimes take the leap and risk of failure. Therefore, it is crucial to know that you are supported in trying new things with the risk of failing, without being shamed or blamed. If this is something you could generally be better at in your team, we recommend your work with the psychological safety in your team - you can find more inspiration for this in our chapter on Psychological Safety in our Leadership Playbook.
Ask yourself: Do I help the employees prioritize the time for improvements?
Letting the employees know that you support them in finding out new and better ways to do their tasks, will give them the needed autonomy to develop their skills on their own. This will also work on a team level so the employees can brainstorm together and learn from each other.
Ask yourself: Do we appreciate and value thinking outside of the box in our culture?
Some things may need to follow definite rules - but there are many benefits to letting employees spend time thinking outside the box. This way, they can feel like their development is prioritized, and they might even find out better ways of working. One way of doing this is to remember always to evaluate meetings and processes, e.g. by asking the question “What works well and what doesn’t work well the way we do it today?”