Seven Leadership Strategies that Improve Engagement

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Mina Brown, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

SEVEN LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES THAT IMPROVE ENGAGEMENT
by Mina Brown, MBA, PCC, BCC, NLPC

Engagement and retention has increasingly become the top challenge among almost all large organizations. Studies consistently show that positive or negative engagement factors directly affect employee retention and have far-reaching impacts on productivity, morale, quality, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, profits and sustainability. Most organizations understand the importance of engaging and keeping key employees, and they make serious efforts in these areas. Often, however, these efforts fall short, and the most valuable employees walk (or run) out the door.

There is no magic potion or silver bullet to ensure employee loyalty, but here are seven crucial leadership strategies that will radically improve employee engagement and increase the stickiness factors for the “A” players.

1. Cultivate High Trust

We expect a lot from our managers. In order for an organization to remain competitive, a good manager must create an atmosphere of teamwork and performance. Hopefully we’ve all experienced at least one of these managers during our careers—the person you look back on and say, “Wow, that person really had a way of inspiring me and those around me, in both good times and bad.”

In order to create this kind of energy and commitment, a manager must be socially and emotionally intelligent, proactively anticipate the needs of the team, lead from the front, and know what it takes to motivate and inspire. All great managers—bar none—share one thing in common. They cultivate trust. It is this trust, when all is said and done, that serves as the backbone of a cohesive team.

According to Stephen M. R. Covey’s insightful book, The Speed of Trust, the two critical components of trust are character and competence. It takes both to deserve high trust. He writes:
“Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.”

Leadership coaching can help managers understand their personal trust and credibility scores, develop a game plan to improve their trust “index,” and create an environment that contributes to higher levels of employee commitment.

2. Model Core Values

For the past several years, the business world has been pretty topsy-turvy. From the headline-generating scandals of big corporations like Enron to the collapse and tentative rebuilding of the global economy, today’s organizations—and their leaders—face more challenges than ever.

How are your leaders responding to these challenges? If they are running around putting out fires rather than preventing fires in the first place, employees are probably feeling frustrated, unmotivated, and tired. Engagement and retention suffer.

Strong core values provide a reliable framework to help employees make decisions and take actions in challenging times, when the answers are far from easy. The best leaders walk their talk and practice what they preach. They act with passion, integrity, and courage. These leaders instill confidence and trust in their employees.

Leadership coaching can help managers clarify their core values, communicate them, and ensure alignment with the organization’s values.

3. Encourage Debate and Risk Taking

A study done by Leadership IQ showed that entrepreneurial cultures—those that promote risk-taking, creativity, and intelligence—have the highest employee engagement. Yet, in the same study only 19% of respondents said their organizational cultures were entrepreneurial.

The best employees want to be in organizational cultures where their opinions matter, where debate is accepted, where they are encouraged to take risks and learn from mistakes, and where there is a constant sense of adventure and growth. And managers and leaders are directly responsible for the development of this kind of environment.

Obviously there are penalties for making mistakes which can result in leaders holding a tight rein on employee decision making and creativity. Too little freedom suffocates good employees but too much freedom can spell trouble, big trouble. The balance is tricky. With the help of a professional coach, leaders can strengthen their ability to delegate authority and learn how to create entrepreneurial cultures in which debate and risk taking is encouraged and embraced.

4. Listen, Really Listen

We often hear that good communication practices foster the type of positive environments needed to keep the best employees. But what we don’t hear enough about is how important being a good listener is to being a good communicator. The best communicators know when to keep their lips zipped and their ears open.

In today’s hard-charging corporate cultures, listening is too often overlooked, underestimated, and underdeveloped. For successful leaders who are always racing against the clock, it’s powerfully tempting to share opinions and advice freely when asked (and sometimes even when not asked). This impulse, however, robs others of the thinking process required to come up with their own opinions or solutions.

Often professional coaches are uniquely skilled to help executives learn how to:
• Invite and show appreciation for feedback.
• Become adept at asking questions.
• Remain insulated (and grateful) for negative feedback.
• Listen for much more than just words.

When leaders open their eyes and ears and listen, really listen, the information that employees share provides valuable direction to those in power—information that can result in a happier, more productive, and overall better workplace.

5. Leverage Strengths—Mitigate Weaknesses

Most motivated, high-performing employees will look past the 95% they are doing well and zero in on the 5% that needs improvement. Of course, this isn’t all bad. It’s what keeps us competitive and thriving in a fast moving world.

In recent years there has been an important awakening and even celebration of unique talents and strengths. Gallup researchers Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton concluded that the most effective way to motivate employees is to build on their strengths rather than correct their weaknesses. They discovered that only 20% of two million employees interviewed were using their strengths every day.

Working from strengths is what will get you ahead. Focusing only on improving weaknesses will usually leave you with “better” weaknesses—but weaknesses nonetheless.

Ideally, individual leaders with the support of an executive coach can leverage their strengths while mitigating their weaknesses—an approach that can be replicated throughout their organizations. The keys are:
• Becoming best-in-class at their strengths.
• Carefully choosing roles that leverage and support strengths.
• Learning how to compensate for weaknesses.

6. Be Savvy about Organizational Nuances

The word “politics” really isn’t a dirty word even though a lot of people feel it is. The reality is that company politics exist, and the best leaders learn how to manage successfully within the system of quid pro quo rather than hold themselves apart with disdain. They understand and accept the massive impact of interpersonal relationships on the allocation of resources, strategies, business processes, interdependent goals, performance, and outcomes.

Leaders who know how to manage and exploit company politics will gain credibility among employees and peers. In addition, the way a leader navigates company politics can significantly impact their organization’s success. Employees who feel that their leader “has their backs” will feel that their goals are more attainable, resulting in improved motivation, performance, engagement, and retention. Top employees are attracted to the “winning teams.”

The best employees also know that a well-connected leader is a better bet for personal recognition, rewards, and future career opportunities. When promotions and bonuses are on the line, the politically savvy leader will be more successful in lobbying for their employees’ benefits. Plus, their voices may hold more sway in succession planning meetings.

Even today, some leaders try to avoid “politics” and assume that if they simply work hard and achieve positive results, they will be rewarded and recognized accordingly. This is just naïve and potentially dangerous. To ignore the subtle but crucial dimension of organizational nuance, such leaders are risking their personal effectiveness and the success of their entire team. An executive coach can help leaders reframe their attitude about and approach to company politics, so that they can more effectively ensure the success of their team or department.

7. Imagine the Future

Good leaders must be able to imagine the future and then communicate it cogently to employees. When leaders can clearly articulate the organization’s long-term vision and link employees’ work to the attainment of that vision, their employees are more motivated to contribute. Let’s be honest. We all want to believe that what we do matters.

Executive coaching can help leaders delve into the future and imagine the possibilities. By not having “the answer,” executive coaches stimulate creativity and allow leaders to shape their own vision for the company.

It Starts—and Ends—with Leadership

While it may be true that some people are “natural leaders,” great leaders can be cultivated and molded from the essential raw ingredients of emotional intelligence and desire. Even if leadership basics could be taught in a classroom, the most impactful development tool for dynamic environments is professional coaching. Yes, training programs, compensation, and recognition can be useful in securing employee motivation and loyalty. Most people do not stay or leave companies because of these factors.

Organizations that really care about their employees, invest in developing great leaders. Leadership coaching uniquely helps leaders develop the credibility, values, risk tolerance, listening skills, strengths, political savvy, and vision they need to ensure that employees are engaged, productive, happy and loyal workers.

 
About the Author
Mina Brown, MBA, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Board Certified Coach (BCC), Certified NLP Coach (NLPC)

Mina Brown is an executive coach, popular keynote speaker, and author. A successful entrepreneur, she leads companies providing global enterprise coach staffing company and accredited coach training.