Unstructure

Seems that interest in this subject has been renewed in these times as it is becoming an area of tremendous impact in today’s businesses. Can an employee be an evangelist and what qualities must he have to play this role? Are companies doing enough to convert employees to evangelists? Are employees up to this challenge in today’s situation? How do employee evangelists impact the bottom-line? Can employee evangelists lead to customer evangelists? …

I recall that my grandfather was one of the best evangelists I’d ever known for the Indian Railways. Being the station master [more than 40 years ago] of the little South Indian town of Wellington – a wonderful holiday destination in the hills, he was an evangelist par excellence. It never occurred to us to use any other mode of transport [unless absolutely necessary] when he was around. Punctuality, discipline, service… at work, and at home. I actually developed a mental picture of the Indian Railways based on what I thought of him. And it was good. I saw the Railways as reliable and dependable, efficient, disciplined …it was as if he was the railways and vice-versa – atleast in my mind at that time.

This seemed to be pretty common back then; when people worked in companies they loved for more than 15 or 20 years. Growing with the establishment – becoming extensions of it. Yes, quite natural when I look back at my teachers, my parents, other authority figures… they absolutely loved what they did for a living. [Atleast I never got the impression otherwise]. And as a result, we chose to go to their schools, buy their company’s products over others in the marketplace, conduct business with their companies solely based on the trust we had in them….

Could this, then, be the key? The basis for the entire concept of the “employee evangelist” – A strong sense of individual purpose.

I believe that all the effort in the making of an employee evangelist – training, involvement in company activities, remuneration, investments in growth, gauging the impact on business and the bottom line…etc, etc will still fall short if the employee has no basic sense of purpose – I mean as an individual, before he/she becomes part of a larger group. Having a sense of purpose drives people to choose certain careers/jobs and companies that share their vision. It is this kind of group that makes not just good, but excellent evangelists; because their sense of purpose goes far deeper than just product/brand knowledge. And nowhere can this authenticity or steadfastness of purpose be gauged more astutely, than at the customer’s table. Sensing purpose, the customer opens up and an engagement begins – not just a one way marketing promotion.

The challenge today, therefore, as I see it, is not whether companies are investing enough to convert employees into evangelists – [it’s certainly a lot more than in the days of my grandfather] -   but whether they are ready to enter into deeper realms [while recruiting and otherwise] of identifying individuals of purpose, and then successfully mapping their roles according to their areas of interest/strength. A happy and productive employee doesn’t need heavy investment to become an evangelist – he already is. And his own new sense of purpose gives him a powerful incentive to see the company succeed.