No Dgrunts No Gomos
Posted in Advice, Love Your People | 3 Comments
d-grunt: noun: someone who’s disgruntled
gomo: noun: someone who goes through the motions
smover: noun: someone who smile & moves
One of the big reasons we’re here is to make good things happen for other people.
It’s simple but for some strange reason, it’s not always easy.
Over the last decade, the Gallup organization has conducted surveys to determine how into our work we are (as you likely know, it’s referred to as ‘employee engagement’). The averages over the decade…
- 29 out of 100 of us are engaged (smovers)
- 54 of 100 are not engaged (gomos)
- 17 of 100 are actively disengaged (d-grunts)
This last group actually ‘works’ to make things worse. Can you imagine how horrible it must be for someone to feel compelled to invest their limited time and energy in tearing things and people down?
Most of us (if not all of us) have been Gomos and D-grunts at times but true D-grunts and Gomos stay there (complaining, watching the clock, entitled, not making good things happen for other people).
Here’s my proposal…
As Smovers and 212ers (aware and responsible), let’s be sure we do our best to lead by example. If we slip, let’s remember we’re obligated to bounce back (Smovish principle #9).
Then, let’s all commit to encouraging someone who’s on the fence between Smoving and being a Gomo (and remind them it’s much more fun on this side). Maybe, if we each have a small success, the example will awaken and encourage even the D-grunts to reconsider their ways. How amazing would that be?
How do you save a Gomo or D-grunt? I believe it begins by loving our people which as you might guess, isn’t all hugs, kisses, and rainbows. It’s about sweeping away the eggshells (theirs and ours) and going for truth.
For those who’ve not read my essay, Love Your People, you can find it here (a 5-minute read at most). We’ve published it in a cool little booklet format with questions and thoughts that can help you get closer to loving your people more consistently (kind of a work/play book).
My presentation of Cross the Line might also be a helpful tool for encouraging someone. You can watch that here.
Gallup’s “State of the American Workplace” can be found here.
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Love the new noun – “gomos”. I will use that for sure!
Thanks for the positive messaging!
I couldn’t agree more with Andy! I work from home and am a smoover but I still need my doses of encouragement so I print the posters and tape them in front of me for inspiration to keep making those calls.
This is fantastic. I regularly post the daily quote on the bulletin board for my employees. One of my managers had just finished telling me of the conversation he had with one of his employees. The employee was a D-Grunt. He cut through the eggshells and hopefully will gain a smover!