How do you connect emotionally with your team? Especially when your team is spread all over the country?
Employees, like customers, make most of their decisions from the emotional ‘right brain.’ No surprise here as employees are people too (I have to say that because I have lost track of how many highly educated executives I have sat with that describe their people in inanimate terms such as “Assets” or “Human Capital”). Your people may join your organization because of tangible salary and benefit packages however, they will stay for two reasons. One being fear. Hostages. They are afraid of losing their job because of the financial hardship that may happen and they do not think they could find another job. Or two, and hopefully this is the real reason, they like their manager, the company they are working with and feel they are making a difference. They feel there is a future for themselves. They are the loyal, engaged volunteers.
The BIG issue we have today though is as a leader, it is getting harder and harder to keep connected with your people. The team may even be spread across the country. They may on the road working with customers. And then to complicate matters, you as the leader, are buried in email, paperwork and meetings. And just when you get a moment to yourself, you are drawn into sitting at your desk and trying to catch up.
The hardest thing to do bar none for leaders to do today is to get up from your desk and walk away. Walk away to go and be with your team. BUT, it is the most important thing you can do for your leadership, the business and for developing a team of loyal, engaged volunteers versus a collection of hostages that fall under you on the organizational chart.
Here is my checklist for developing emotional connections with your team and building loyal, engaged volunteers:
Final words. Be real. Be authentic. 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. If 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 a management course). Stick with it. As you are building the habit of being a leader that leads, your team will respond.