10 Important Keys For Getting Your People To Work WITH You, Not Just FOR You - Engaging Your Team

These were some of the results of Blessing White research on employee engagement in 2008. It has not got any better in the following two years. In fact, if anything, it has got worse.

Gallup Organisation Research in Australia released in July 2008 supported those results when it found that 20% of Australian workers are disengaged, costing the economy $31.5 billion dollars per year.

Every CEO, Manager, team leader and co-ordinator wants to have an engaged team of people who work WITH them, not just FOR them.

1.    Develop a psychological contract with your people.

• Make an emotional investment in them. “We will look after you, if you look after our organisation”.    
• Promise to make their work meaningful and fulfilling if they will give you their hearts and minds, their loyalty and commitment.
• Create a win/win experience.

2.    Motivate and inspire your people to engagement with the organisation.

• Let them know the rewards and benefits career wise.
• Let them know also how personally fulfilling it can be to be engaged.
• Help them develop the attitudes and soft skills to become fully engaged with their work and their organisation.

3.    Engage with each one of your team members individually and personally on a regular basis.

• Let them know you are available for them.
• Ask them what they want from you.
• Discuss with them how you can give that to them.
• Encourage them and give them opportunities to develop skills they either don’t have or in which they are challenged.
• Assist your people to develop a personal connection to their work. This means that you know what is personally important to them and that you can help them get that from their work.

4.     Assist them to align their personal goals with the organisation’s goals so they can have a fulfilling and satisfying relationship with the organisation.

• Find out what their career goals and aspirations are.
• What are their top 3 goals?
• Help them to develop a career development plan for achieving them.
• Support them in this in every way you can.
• Help them see how their goals fit with the organisation’s goals.
• Discover what talents, skills and abilities they have.
• Allocate projects/work to them based on those skills, talents and abilities.
• Make sure they can see how their work contributes to the organisation meeting its goals.
• Create a learning and development environment within the organisation where people can grow their careers.
• Ensure they are aware of future opportunities that are available within the organisation.

Aligning their goals with those of the organisation is an on-going process because the organisation’s goals can change.

• Need to be open and transparent with your people about the organisation’s agenda.
• Need to be able to motivate and inspire their continued support when it does change.

When people become unhappy and disillusioned it is often because what they are doing at work is no longer personally meaningful. Their goals and the organisation’s have become misaligned. They don’t recognise that this is what has happened and therefore personalise their problem in the manager. When recognised it is easier to address.

• Stick with the issue – their goals and those of the organisation are misaligned.
• Discuss the implications with them.
• Help them re-align their goals so they can stay
• Help them make the decision to move into another job where there is greater alignment of their goals with those of the organisation.

5.    Motivate your people to take responsibility for their career development, rather than see it as someone else’s responsibility.

• Encourage them to be proactive in seeking opportunities within the organisation.
• Make yourself available to discuss their career development with them.
• Make their career development within the organisation part of every performance appraisal, so that the appraisal becomes a win/win experience.
• Mentor in management skills those who take an interest in that area.

6.    Build a supportive, well-functioning team. Assume responsibility for your team as would a head coach in a sports team.

• Make sure everyone is a good fit in the team.
• Motivate them to be fit and healthy.
• Ensure they respect one another.
• Encourage collaborative and supportive work.
• Help them recognise, value and appreciate one another’s strengths.
• Develop a culture of trust in the team.

7.    Be visible to your team.

• Physically – manage by walking around (another version of walking the talk!).
• Psychologically – let them get to know you and what is important to you. People work with you and do business with you when they know, like and trust you.
• Increase your face to face interaction with your people. People are complex and email is bad for complex stuff.

8.    Build trust with your team.

• Be genuine, honest, open and transparent.Don’t play games or be manipulative.
• Be a person of integrity – know and do what is right always.
• Don’t be defensive, especially in the face of criticism from team members. Take criticism objectively, not personally. Listen and learn and turn your critic into a supporter.
• Walk the talk.

9.    Give feedback on a regular basis.

• Tell them what they do well.
• Tell them what their contribution means.
• Value and appreciate them.
• Be the coach rather than the critic.
• Where improvement is needed, set clear expectations and goals and work collaboratively and constructively.

10.    Be clear and focussed on your priorities and keep your team focussed on them. People can’t engage with something that is constantly shifting, or is fuzzy and unclear.