10 Tips for Engaging Your Team

Hi Folks, yesterday I was analyzing BlessingWhites 2008 Global Employee Engagement Report, Following are the few findings from the report. I will keep you posted on the further study as well.

Like a catalyst that enables two chemicals in a beaker to combine this would not otherwise mix, good manager-employee relationships smooth the way for mutually beneficial connections between individual employees (on their very personal paths for great “work”) and their employers (with ambitious strategies that need execution).

As a manager, you are a critical ingredient in successful employee engagement.

1. Reflect and recharge: Where are you on the engagement spectrum? You can’t help your team if you’re spinning out of control as a Crash & Burner. If you are in the apex of engagement, how can you stay there — and “infect” others?

2. Hire engage-able team members: Jeanie Donovan, employee engagement director, Customer Experience, of a Fortune 500 financial services firm explains, “Our number one problem was lack of fit. We needed to hire people who could be successful. Instead of training square pegs to fit the round hole, we now try to hire round pegs.”

3. Earn trust every day: Trust provides the essential foundation for your effectiveness as a manager, whether we’re talking about engagement, innovation, or high performance. To build it, you need to reveal who you are as a person. Your title and accomplishments aren’t enough. Carmen Ward, Senior Manager of Fraud Prevention at Yahoo! Search Marketing, offers this additional advice on personal character to build trust: “I lead by example and I don’t take credit for their work. I speak candidly and keep my word. What I preach, I do in return.”

4. Stress employee ownership: You can’t create an engaged team if your employees don’t have clear visions of personal success. Make sure they know that you’re available to provide guidance, remove barriers, and help them find fulfilling work. However, they are ultimately the ones responsible for their success.

5. Find out where the bus is going — and remind people of your destination: If you’re not clear on your organization’s strategy, find someone who can give you some answers. Once you are clear, help your team members understand their role and prioritize the myriad tasks they face each day to achieve meaningful results.

6. Remember that feedback is a gift: Employees want feedback. They deserve information that can help them achieve their goals and the organization’s. Let them know what they do well so they can keep doing those things with confidence. Suggest course corrections to help them use their time and effort most efficiently.


7. Talk and listen more: Communication (especially in today’s email-driven workplace) is often one-way. Conversation, on the other hand, is about dialogue between two or more people. Conversation drives clarity. It is by far the most effective vehicle for providing performance feedback. It is the only way to efficiently generate new ideas for increasing business results and personal job satisfaction. It helps prevent misunderstandings. It builds trust. One example: A claims operations manager at an insurance company makes time to connect with each team member at least once a week for “personal face time.” He has monthly one-on-ones with staff, and tries to keep his door open.

8. Match projects, passion, and proficiency: Every person comes to work with a different combination of personal values, talents, and goals, which they are looking to satisfy on the job. They don’t necessarily want a lofty title, a higher salary, or your job. If you can help them connect what’s important to them with what’s important to the organization, you can make a positive impact on their job satisfaction, commitment, and contribution.

9. Get to know your team members: You don’t need to be their friend. You do need to know what makes them tick. Who shows signs of being a Crash & Burner? Do you know what motivates your Engaged or Almost Engaged employees? Pay attention. Ask questions.

10. Tailor your coaching strategies:

-Invest in your Almost Engaged team members, providing feedback, more resources when possible, and continuous opportunities to excel.

-Get your Hamsters on the right track if they are lost or spur them into action if they’re coasting or R.I.P. (retired in place).

- Help the Honeymooners understand their top priorities and discuss what they need to do to be successful on the job.

- Take a timeout with the Crash & Burners to take stock of how they’re feeling and clarify what personal success looks like to them. Provide more resources if you can, development opportunities, feedback, and perspective when competing priorities loom large.

- Size up your Disengaged. You may need to coach some out of the organization for their own good and yours. Spell out expectations with the rest, take stock of their interests and talents, and try to provide opportunities for them to do work that matters.

- Finally don’t take the Engaged for granted. Full engagement is hard to sustain on one’s own. Nurture them, recognize them, stretch them, develop them.