While we may want that awesome employee engagement right this very second, the truth is it’s a long process. The result of which will depend on our ability to consider engagement in both a long-term – and short-term – perspective. The “trick”, in other words, is to think long and short all at once and find appropriate strategies for both. Which is what this little article series will discuss, starting with engagement in the short run.
According to Gallup, “engagement is a series of everyday actions and interactions…and all of these interactions, big and small, add up to huge cultural impact.”. I.e. that great employee engagement you’re after? It comes from actions; from separate instances that, when combined, make for a bigger effect on a cultural level.
The good news is, there are a few immediate strategies that leaders can put in use to add to these moments, and that can aid engagement in the short run. Strategies such as to:
1: Listen
A bit simplistic, perhaps, but truth is that listening to employees can be pretty hard. You know, with the ease in which we only listen insofar as to find the right moment to answer, or to hear that buzzword we have a practiced sentence in response to. In other words, it’s easy to listen on what experts talk about as level 1.
Now, the idea is to move on to the next level, where you’re “listening in order to understand the core barriers and obstacles that get in the way for employees”. Which is only step 1 of level 2, where you continue by asking “powerful questions to unearth important insights about their people and their work circumstances.” The idea being that questions that are more open-ended in nature can provide information that reveals what obstacles will need to be overcome.
On top of all that, Gallup explains that “the best leaders extend their listening to include surveying their surroundings”, reading between the lines and hearing things beyond what is actually said. Which is certainly something that most of us would need to practice long and hard to master.
Overall, the point here is to listen on a whole new level, to be able to make the best choices for the future. To listen to what is said and what is communicated in other ways, so as to be able to have an honest conversation about what obstacles can be overcome – and what problems that may not be feasible to address at this very moment.
2: Act
Listening is all good and well, but the amount of information matters less if not acted upon. Or, as Gallup puts it:
“Managers must hear needs, get to the bottom of why they matter (by comprehending what motivates the concerns among employees), and then they can make a difference when they work with the team to problem-solve.”
I.e. it starts with the understanding, that is then followed by the actual acting on that understanding. And remember, by acting on what you’ve understood you also show employees that you’ve heard them. Which can, in itself, have a pretty large impact.
While these strategies alone aren’t enough to trigger that huge cultural transformation, after which the very paint of your office walls will be laced with engagement, it is certainly part of the solution. A part that can be started right away and have positive effects in the short run.
And besides, we’ll get to the long-term strategies in the next part, where we’ll be talking foundational strategies aiming for the distant future…
Source: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/308780/employee-engagement-program-isn-working.aspx
