7 Steps to Soaring Employee Engagement and Loyalty

The BIG issue we have today as leaders, is that it is harder and harder to drive employee engagement. Globalization creates teams that are spread across the world, and technology keeps you buried in email.

How to Drive your Employee Engagement Through the Roof

Here is my checklist for driving employee engagement by developing emotional connections with your team and building loyal, engaged volunteers:

1. Be conscious of the amount of time you spend doing non-leadership team activities (email, useless meetings, etc.).
2. Be disciplined about creating time for your team.  Schedule time in your calendar if you have to.  And… commit to it.
3. Get organized with your emails – schedule a time of day for doing it.  An hour in the morning and hour in the afternoon.  And stick to it!
4. Start a weekly “Huddle Meeting” in which every team member attends.  In the huddle, each team member takes a couple of minutes to talk about what happened last week and what they need to get done in the week ahead.  Team members can offer suggestions to issues, or assistance.  You, as the leader, can check to make sure the team is staying focused on the strategy.
5. Have monthly 30-minute review sessions with each team member that reports to you.  Use this time to talk about strategy, purpose, values, vision, and objectives.  Encourage your team members to engage by asking them these three questions:
   1. “What can I do more of for you?”
   2. “What can I do less of for you?”
   3. “What do I need to continue to do for you?”
6. Do quarterly review meetings with each individual – checking in on objectives and performance.  Your team craves feedback on their performance and this is a great time to do it.  Waiting until the annual performance review time is too late!
7. Communicate!  Spend some of that email time of yours drafting up a monthly update on what is going on in the business.  Recognize team members for work they did.  Talk about wins with customers and what is coming on the horizon.

Relationship Building

Make time to team build. Team building is essential for leaders in business.  Henry Ford once said: “you learn more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation.”  If you are to connect, I mean really connect with your team, you have to plan some play time. And do it often.

Building solid relationships with your team is critical for those times when you, the business or a team member is facing adversity.  It’s during those times that the investment in finding a way for your team to let off some ‘steam’ will come and pay you back.  When a team has bonded through play, they will be there for each other during tough times.  They will be there for you too.

Introduce ‘Fun’

Find a way to build fun into your work environment.  Find a way to laugh at meetings.  You will discover some amazing things about your colleagues.  If you build a team that has each other covered for when times are tough.  You will have a renewed levels of energy, commitment, and employee engagement!  You will see remarkable results.

Be Authentic

Final words.  Be real.  Be authentic. Be soulful.  If you are not, your team will see right through it and you will be worse off than if you stayed locked up in your office.  Oh… and a word of advice… if this is new to you, and your team has rarely, if ever, seen you… go slow.  If you all of a sudden charge out of the office and expect that everyone is going to throw rose petals at your feet, you will be very disappointed.  Your team will be suspect at first (they might even think you have been on one of those management courses).  Stick with it.  As you are building the habit of being a leader that leads, your team will respond.

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, connect with Robert on LinkedIn.

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