Two Secrets to Engagement You Can Employ Today
From January to June of 2018, 53% of workers in the U.S. were “not engaged” at work. 13% were actively disengaged. The latter group were working against their organization. (Gallop)
Complaints of incompetence:
Leaders complain that employees are disengaged. But they give instructions without asking questions and treat people like objects. It’s ridiculous doublespeak.
Lousy leaders expect engagement and they want to treat people like objects at the same time.
Treat people like tools and they’ll wait to be told what to do. Treat people like human beings and they’ll eventually dare to bring their hearts to work. And isn’t engagement about the heart?
Traditional professionalism is a pathetic excuse to expect engagement without heart.
Two Secrets to Engagement:
#1. Engage people if you want them to be engaged.
- Secrets strangle engagement. No one feels engaged when upper management drops stingy nuggets of information to the minions on the frontline.
- Seek input before making decisions. People don’t need you to agree with them. They need to feel heard.
- Delegate as many decisions as possible. Warren Buffet said, “We delegate almost to the point of abdication.” (Warren Buffets Management Secrets)
Compliance isn’t engagement. The coercive tools that demand compliance destroy engagement.
Engagement is a choice, not a command.
Note: New employees and the inexperienced need more guidance and instruction. Your involvement enhances their engagement. But competent people don’t like being told what to do. Do you?
#2. The tougher the issue, the kinder you need to become.
Professional distance is for the birds.
- Kindness isn’t weakness.
- Explore negotiable issues while holding to non negotiables.
- Stand your ground with a smile.
- Coach for performance as a first alternative. Coaching is an employee driven encounter where managers give fewer answers and ask more questions.
- Correct or confront with optimism, respect, and clear accountability.
Be kind when situations are tough.
What leadership practices encourage disengagement?
How might leaders enhance engagement?
What leadership practices encourage disengagement?
When leaders ask questions and then only half listen to what is said. The leader has already made up his/her mind. He/she isn’t really open to other ideas.
How might leaders enhance engagement?
Ask questions and fully consider all the ideas that are presented.
If you are not open, don’t ask for input.
Thanks Paul. The power of real listening can’t be over-estimated.
Don’t ask if you don’t want to learn. Don’t ask if you’re a know-it-all.
If you think you already know the answer, say, “I have some ideas, but I’m interested in what yo think.” (Just be honest)
If you never change your mind. Get out of leadership!
Interestingly, I’m working through the data on a company engagement survey presently. These points are right on target! Leadership practices encouraging engagement asks open ended questions, listens to the response and remembers what was said. Allow freedom for exploration of ideas and methods from a different perspective without criticism.
Enhancing engagement treats people as humans and respects their thoughts and ideas but stimulates them to develop creative solutions to their own problems.
Thanks McSteve. It’s great that you bring your experience to the conversation.
I think creating engagement is relatively easy. We just have to let go of the dumb leadership practices that get in the way.
I’ve started a couple organizations. Someone asked how to do it. My first tip is during the formation meeting everyone at the table leaves with something to do. No spectators allowed.
Create an environment where engagement is normal and people will step into the game, or they will opt out. Either decision is OK.
Thanks for these great points, Dan. This is the hardest lesson for traditional managers and organizations to learn…that engagement isn’t “fun” stuff. And it’s not the same as benefits, like working from home or on-site services. Benefits are benefits.
Engagement is two-way dialogue. It’s open thought-sharing prior to major decisions. It’s transparency that allows/helps employees to understand/cope with next-level changes well ahead of the changes themselves.
Thanks Stephanie. Gallop’s research indicates that benefits and pay have a little impact on engagement. But as you indicate, it’s really about relationships, interactions, environment, inclusion, openness, and conversations.
Engagement isn’t a program. It’s a way of showing up.
In most cases, team leads and managers are chosen because they know stuff. They consider themselves experts, and most of them are. Unfortunately that can limit the scope of their curiosity, leaving their minds closed to new possibilities and new learning. Having said that, it’s important to foster and support a curious workforce from the top down. Curiosity makes people more open and receptive to new ideas. Being curious places more value on ideas and conversations that inspire growth rather than on ideas that may be quickly described as “best.”
Thanks Jhana. Wonderful observations. Curiosity and engagement go together. It’s pretty difficult to have engagement without curiosity.
engagement demands curiosity.
Engagement is definitely a struggle for many organisations.
I looked up definitions of engagement (in this context) and got a number like “emotional commitment “, “Emotional connection” and “a positive cognitive, emotional, and behavioral state”
I do wonder if managers wanting people to become emotional engaged in what those same managers want to be a logical, dispassionate, transactional process is perhaps vastly optimistic?
Thanks Mitch. Yes, the idea of detachment and engagement seem to be at odds. I hope we don’t have to choose either one. Can’t we connect and also be logical? Can’t we address issues from a logical point of view and employees with connection in mind?
I think you do have to choose. I think expecting people to be heavily emotionally invested in a situation where whether they continue in employment is a strictly logical, balance sheet driven go/no go decision is too Kafkaesque for real life.
As you so aptly state, engagement comes from the heart. The adage “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” has to become a thoughtful mantra for a leader who wants to build and maintain engagement. I found honesty, transparency -no hidden agendas- and really listening to people to be invaluable in creating (or restoring) and maintaining engagement. Also, identifying the portion of that 13% who are unreachable (after honest effort) and giving them “the opportunity to excel elsewhere” is as essential as removing a malignancy from the body.
Thanks Jim. You listed three essential leadership qualities for building engagement. The thing that’s important is…culture isn’t a program. In a way, it’s a person. Or, I should say many persons.
You also bring up the important point. There comes a point when you invite disengaged people to leave. They just aren’t worth it.
Interesting, Jim. I’ve found most managers don’t care a jot about engagement UNTIL they know you’re a winner. Once they know you’re a winning horse, only then do they want you to commit, and commit big, usually as a way of avoiding paying more. Commitment without capability is basically perceived as worthless to them.
Mitch, I didn’t mean to imply that a leader’s capability isn’t important, far from it. I guess I am prescribing from my own autobiography here! As one who was privileged to lead my organization in new directions (I’m retired), usually only a very few people initially were “true believers” in the new philosophies, programs, and methods we were trying to implement, or the outcomes we were hoping to achieve. There was no “track record” per se because we hadn’t done those things before. My credibility and that of my team as we undertook big changes certainly were based on perceptions of our past results in more familiar areas, but I believe those perceptions were based in equal parts on our technical competence and interpersonal relationships built over time. Thank you for your input!
Love your thoughts Dan…unfortunately, due to the lack of leadership behaviors described above….me=disengaged, and it appears to be a long winding road leading back to engagement.
Thanks Jack. Hat’s off for your honesty. Every leader that complains about disengaged employees needs to look within, before pointing any fingers.
Engagement is a word that seems to be on the comeback trail. It will be good to see it put into practice really. In my view engagement takes into consideration body and mind of the individuals and their relation ship with others both individually and collectively. Often destroyed by micromanagers and bullies, but quickly revived with the right change. Good article thanks
Dan, this is always a timely topic. It always amazes me that the very leaders who hold the power to hire, support and develop employees don’t seem to understand that lack of engagement means lack of leadership. As you said, “Every leader that complains about disengaged employees needs to look within, before pointing any fingers.”
What leadership practices encourage disengagement?
– SELF GRUARANTEED IDEAS: In the case after devotion, within or after working hours whereby the manager presents the message or next outline of the staffs to them, introducing new directives to undertake immediately. The staffs frowns and disagree in respect to it’s odd retribution yet still their opinion is underated. It seems as though the opinions of the team or staffs doern’t count in the company thereby encouraging disengagement…
Love this article. I am a true believer to embrace your team members and give them the ability to feel confident enough to suggest ideas. Empowering staff to participate in growing the company and they will feel more important.