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The number one responsibility of any leader is to create an environment that not only engages their workforce, but draws out the best of what they have to offer. The organizations that are the most successful at this are those that build and sustain the strongest competitive advantage over the long haul.
Theories abound on how to best optimize employee engagement, yet there is no one clear solution. It's my experience that the simplest paradigms tend to be the most useful. Which is how I came to develop the engagement framework shown in the adjacent diagram.
1) Engage – Connect Authentically.
Communicating effectively with the people in your workplace first requires establishing a genuine connection with them. Therefore, engaging authentically with people around you is the first task of genuine leadership due to the trust that it builds. This requires leaders leaving their offices to join employees on the front lines. It requires a willingness to lay vulnerability on the line, share authentically, and engage in open unstructured sessions of discussion, risking tough questions, direct criticism, open hostility and even unsuccessful outcomes.
2) Inspire – Enlarge the Context.
It is imperative for leaders to enlarge the context and help employees understand the bigger “Why” so they can view what they are doing through a bigger lens. Doing so enables employees to reframe their role – not only in the context of how it contributes to the organization’s mission, but to the impact that mission serves in the world at large. Leaders must continually work to ensure employees know that their role, however small it may seem when compared to the organization’s output, is both valued and valuable. When people know that there’s something bigger at stake they will approach every challenge with greater tenacity, determination and initiative.
3) Embolden – Cultivate a ‘Culture of Courage.’
Most people will only take risks when they assess that it is safe to do so. It's our innate aversion to risk that makes it so crucial for leaders at all levels to be proactive in cultivating a "Culture of Courage" in which people feel secure enough to exit their comfort zone and take risks. Such a culture is one where people are actively encouraged to challenge status quo thinking, provide candid upward feedback, experiment and push boundaries.
My experience coaching and working with teams has shown me that when people feel that their contribution is truly valued and there is a safety net if things don't work out, it generates greater ownership of their success and stronger commitment to the larger mission of their team and organization. Leading in today's increasingly competitive, accelerated and uncertain world takes courage. Yet only when leaders demonstrate the courage they wish to see in those around them will they be able to unleash the human potential within their teams and organization, tap ingenuity, raise the bar on innovation and optimize the value their organization contributes to all of it's stakeholders.
There is a well-known story about a cleaner at NASA who, when asked by JFK what his job was, responded “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” This anecdote is often used to show how even the most mundane job can be seen as meaningful with the right mindset and under a good leadership.
Today, more and more employees demand much more than a good salary from their jobs. Money may lure people into jobs, but purpose, meaning, and the prospect of interesting and valuable work determines both their tenure and how hard they will work while they are on the job.
Research consistently shows that people experiencing meaningful work report better health, wellbeing, teamwork and engagement; they bounce back faster from setbacks and are more likely to view mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures.
Research suggests that there are four key personality characteristics that determine leaders’ ability to make other people’s jobs more meaningful, namely:
- They are curious and inquisitive. Studies show that people tend to experience work as meaningful when they feel like they are contributing to creating something new — especially when they feel able to explore, connect and have an impact. Curious leaders help people find meaning at work by exploring, asking questions, and engaging people in ideas about the future.
- They are able to trust people. Most people hate being micromanaged. Overpowering and controlling bosses are serious source of disempowerment for employees. This drains the impact from the work they do and makes them feel worthless. In stark contrast, leaders who know how to trust people are more likely to give them room to experiment and grow. Employees who customize their job tend to feel a much greater sense of importance and value because they feel that their manager actually trusts them.
- They hire for values and culture fit. Research shows that people only find something valuable if it aligns with their core needs and motives. This is why the fit between an individual’s personal values and the culture of the organization they work in is such an important driver of their performance. In fact, you are better off not hiring the best, but instead people who are a good fit for your organization. Leaders who pay attention to what each individual values are more likely to hire people who will find it easier to connect with their colleagues and the wider organization, all of which help to drive a sense of meaning.
- They are challenging and relentless. Research shows that optimistic people who expect to do well don’t try as hard as people who expect to struggle or fail. Leaders who remain ambitious in the face of both failure and success, and who push their people to remain dissatisfied with their accomplishments, instill a deeper sense of purpose in their teams and organizations. As a result employees feel a sense of progress, reinvention, and growth, which in turn results in a more meaningful and positive work experience.
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Historically, formal procedures have been used to maintain control, not to simplify work. However, a culture of “winging it” can be just as frustrating. At their heart, effective processes are not about adding red tape — they are about enabling “flow.” There are several approaches that incorporate this idea of flow. Whatever method you choose, here are three core ideas that I’ve found lead to the biggest breakthroughs:
- Make sure everyone sees the big picture. When people focus on efficiency in one part of a process, they suboptimize the system as whole — because they don’t weigh the impact of their actions on downstream groups or on the customer. To improve the flow, ensure everyone understands how their work fits together and how to prevent downstream defects through clearer handoffs, giving other departments sufficient lead time, and prioritizing based on overall goals.• Love your bottlenecks. Instead of blaming your bottleneck, treat it as scarce resource whose capacity should never ever be wasted. Does it receive top-quality inputs from other groups? Is it ever left idle? Do you squander capacity by constantly switching priorities?• Do the right things more reliably. Your team may produce excellent work most of the time, but if it is inconsistent, people will be forced to waste time checking to ensure no one drops the ball. You can reduce workload and increase the psychological experience of flow by identifying a few best practices and making them into solid habits.
Working on processes in a collaborative way is one of the fastest, most effective vehicles for building engagement and translating values into action.
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