Eric Chester — February 27, 2017 Follow @eric_chesterFor a high school teacher, the most frustrating night of each semester is the one set aside for parent-teacher conferences.
Although parent’s night for 1st and 2nd grade students always draws a full house, the parent-teacher conferences at the neighboring high school are sparsely attended, generally attracting only those parents of the highest achieving students.
Those parents that the biology teacher, the English Lit teacher, and the algebra teacher really need to talk to rarely show up.
As a former high school teacher (spanning six years in three different high schools) this always boggled my mind. I wondered,“Why do parents of low-performing students not take the time to come meet with their teachers?”
Then one day, it suddenly dawned on me. The answer to that riddle was contained in the question. “When parents stop taking time to meet with their kid’s teachers, it’s a safe bet that that student’s performance will start to decline.”
THIS PERFORMANCE AXIOM IS ALSO EVIDENT IN WORKPLACE CULTURES
With employee engagement, workplace culture, and the millennial mindset being such critical issues for businesses in every industry, I’m not surprised by the number of requests that I receive to speak to audiences of leaders and managers.
What IS surprising is that most of these requests come from organizations with better-than-average to exceptional cultures; many that already boast sky-high employee engagement scores and are frequently recognized for being ‘the best place to work’ in their industry.
Seldom do the requests come from companies with subpar employee engagement scores and high turnover.
It doesn’t make sense.
Then again, maybe it makes total sense.
Just as I experienced when meeting with the parents of straight-A students who were never tardy, came to class prepared, and who always turned in their homework on time, it seems as though I’m, once again, preaching to the choir.
This may leave you wondering “why do the companies that are renowned for having amazing workplace cultures continue to invest heavily in the improvement of those cultures?”
And once again, the answer to the riddle is contained within the question.
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