2019 is going to be your year.
Professionally, you have big aspirations. You have a vision for the way things could be. You can see the way to bring this vision to life. This is the year that you’re going to make a big impact.
You know you can’t do it alone. As a leader, you want to engage others so they’ll work with you to make that impact.
You need to shore up the level of employee engagement on your team to make things happen.
Employee Engagement? What, Exactly, Is That?
Employee engagement is defined as “the emotional connection an employee feels to his/her organization that causes them to apply additional discretionary effort to their work.”
There are two key elements to this definition.
The first is “emotional connection.” The CEB found that “Emotional commitment drives effort. Emotional commitment is four times as valuable as rational commitment in producing discretionary effort. Indeed, the search for a high performing workforce is synonymous with the search for emotional commitment.”
The second element is “additional discretionary effort.” Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of “Great Leadership Creates Great Workplaces” and the world’s foremost researchers on leadership, concluded that “The best leaders elicit three time the amount of talent, energy, commitment and motivation from employees compared to their counterparts.”
The CEB’s research affirms this: “Engagement is the key to performance and retention. Highly committed employees try 57% harder, perform 20% better, and are 87% less likely to leave than employees with low levels of commitment.”
Why Is Working on Employee Engagement an Important Resolution?
Employee engagement isn’t one way to get things done, it’s THE way to make things happen.
“Engagement is the primary enabler of successful execution of any business strategy.”
(DDI, Employee Engagement: The Key to Realizing Competitive Advantage)
What could be more important?
How Can I Get Started If I’m Just One Manager in an Organization?
If your organization isn’t committing time and resources to boosting employee engagement, don’t let hold you back.
The number one factor in increasing employee engagement is YOU. The manager makes the most difference in whether or not an employee is emotionally committed to their work. So you can have an impact with your team even if your organization is not involved.
Here are three ideas for getting started:
1. Download this free employee engagement checklist.
It’s got quick, easy, day-to-day changes you can make immediately. Each one of them will have a positive impact on engagement levels.
2. Ask the members of their team for feedback.
What would they like to see you doing more often? What do they need most from you? How do your actions affect the work they are doing? Listen without defending yourself. Keep an open mind. Model the ability to consider others’ input and weigh it objectively. You’ll decide what to change, and you’ll instantly engage others by signaling that their opinions matter and that you value them.
3. Take an online DIY course.
If you haven’t had formal training as a supervisor, consider taking an online DIY course that will equip you with the supervisory skills that can have a dramatic effect on engagement. In this course, you’ll learn how to be a coach, how to set expectations, how to give quality feedback, how to delegate, and much more. The Workplace Conversations course was specifically designed to equip supervisors for boosting employee engagement.
Another Way to Improve in 2019
With higher levels of engagement, 2019 really is going to be your year!
For an additional free resource on employee engagement, click the graphic below. You'll get a handy, step-by-step checklist that will help you improve:
- Workplace relationships
- Team productivity
- Leadership effectiveness
