A leader should inspire...

I've had 12 years of experience handling people and what most doesn't know is that it is not the length of stay in the company that one leader can determine potential in an employee. By experience, people don't get loyal in a company, they become loyal with relationships. Strong relationships help build trust amongst employees and managers. Employee engagement takes time and can sometimes be tricky, but is a very influential way to lead teams. Some call it emotional leadership, some call it micro-management, I prefer to call it employee engagement.

How to Engage your Employees

1. Dynamic  Factor- Too often, those who stayed in a company for too long has either become stagnant in their role to be a contributor. One should check if there were changes in the role within 2-4 years otherwise the employee tends to become freeloaders of the company’s resources and are not really significantly contributing. A highly engaged individual will always look for something new and big and be a part of it. That employee will more likely look for a productive challenge and learn new things and master their craft at such a short period of time and look for something new. This can be a new project, a new assignment, a promotion, an additional task.

Note to the manager: It is important to look for ways to build the career path of your employees so you don’t lose your highly engaged people. You attract the same type of people so you too need to be highly engaged in your employee’s growth. Look for ways to create opportunities for your employees to learn, grow and develop. Be careful not to just add tasks that will overwhelm them with more and more responsibilities than they can handle but know what they are good at, what motivates them and what they will enjoy doing. Tasks such as mentoring new employees, new leaders, job shadowing, creating engagement activities, process improvement are some of the examples of what you can use do for them. Giving them tasks such as these gives them the idea that you are committed to seeing them grow in their role and that you are giving them opportunities. Make sure this is done across all levels within your influence and equally practiced to all people you are handling.

1. Purpose Factor-– the engaged employee will always choose purpose over appreciation or promotion. It is more likely that the employee would choose promotion that ties up with a purpose over an appreciation that has no purpose. They want to be a part of something big and make them feel they were a part of. A free- loader will just embrace appreciation even if the credit is not due them but an engaged employee needs no credit for as long as he/she knows they were a big factor of a success.

Note to the manager: More than coming to work, doing your job, receiving your paycheck, everyone is motivated by something or someone significantly attached in their lives – their families, dreams, loved ones. That trigger from a significant other should be tapped in order to drive your people to a much higher purpose – be an inspiration, be a role model, be a trailblazer, be a part of something big. Always tie the employee’s motivational triggers to a much higher purpose that they can be a part of such as being the company’s pioneer, top contributor, a great influence so the employees have an emotional attachment to their goals.

I have handled an associate who was offered a promotion but chose not to accept it as the primary trigger of that engaged employee is to impart and teach as that is a way that employee can feel he/she can contribute highly.

1. The attitude of Gratitude – it is more likely that an employee who is already working for the company for a long period of time will have spits of ranting. A manager must go past that and check for reasons what the employee is grateful for. The highly engaged employee will still have moments of complaining but will also have reasons to be thankful for. As managers, we should be able to, first of all, listen to those rants and not fight it but channel it to self-awareness and self-discovery. Most managers tend to kill the issue way before listening intently. Effective managers listen and adjusts the conversation back to the employee and asks for what they have learned out of the situation and what can they do moving forward. Focusing on what they have and what they should be thankful for is the first step to deviate reasons for dissatisfaction.

1. Confidence Factor-– I have read it somewhere that when you talk to “managers” you feel that they are important but when you talk to “leaders” you feel important. This is the kind of confidence we should instill towards the people we are handling. They must feel confident that they can do their jobs too well that they can do your job in the long run. A leader must not feel insecure as our goal is to make our people rise above their own roles and responsibilities to promote them as we must also grow from our own roles. Killing your people’s confidence by the lack of appreciation, unproductive feedback, false accusations and gossips is not the way to instill confidence to your people. Employees feel confident when you provide a feedback that will make them feel they are doing well and there is a way for them to become even better as opposed to withholding appreciation, finding fault and throwing spits of anger. I have experienced laboring for a manager and work my scorecards consistently to the top only to be given a feedback that I don’t deserve the recognition because there are things I still need to improve on. You can always give appreciation even to the most unproductive individual, at least, look for something to make them feel good about themselves. Give credit to whom credit is due. It is a leader’s responsibility to instill confidence so as to give ounces of courage to their people to reach for greater things.
2. Communication Factor– Effective communication is more like it. I had the privilege of working with 3 types of managers. The first was an excellent manager who knows how to work the scorecards and take the business to a highly desirable place for the clients to invest because of highly productive individuals. Yet at the backseat, that manager failed to communicate the purpose to the team and most often will throw spits of anger towards employees. This created low morale for the employees. The next manager is aware of the conflict amongst leaders and instead of taking sides, that manager allowed individual time of listening and understanding both parties without prior judgment. That leader did not take sides but encouraged the leaders to have a meeting and talk it over. This opened up an adult conversation and forced the leaders to resolved the conflict amongst themselves. Up until this day, I think highly of that manager. Another manager who influenced me knows how to listen intently and speaks straight to the heart. He knows how to point his finger to what is going on after listening to an individual and uses that to challenge the leader to become bigger than the situation. This leader did not waste his time in front of his laptop alone but went around to check on his people and sit down to individuals to inspire that as needed or to challenge them to go back on track. Communication is supposed to be consistent, personal and build people up.

also published at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/leader-should-inspire-claire-ann-sansolis/edit?trk=pulse-art-edit_btn